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Introduction and Objectives: Hepatitis E is an infection caused by the E virus (HEV) with the fecal-oral transmission. The spectrum of the disease varies from acute form to chronic evolution. There are few studies in the rural region of Bahia State. This study aimed to study the seroprevalence of hepatitis E in a city in a rural region in Brazil. Materials and Methods: Held in May 2022 at family health clinics (PSFs) in the city of Serrinha-Bahia State, with 80,000 inhabitants and 184.6 km from Salvador, capital city. Participants who agreed to integrate into the study signed the Free and Informed Consent Term, collected blood samples and answered the questionnaire. The samples were stored at -20°C until the moment of use; those that needed to be retested for IgM were transported on dry ice and frozen at -80°C. IgG and IgM anti-HEV diagnostic kits (mikrogen and Diapro) approved by ANVISA of MS in Brazil were used. Medical-educational activities were carried out in the units on the prevention of viral hepatitis and health Results: Of a sample of 300 volunteers, actually, 150 blood samples were analyzed, the prevalence of anti-HEV IgM and IgG was 2.66%, and anti-HEV IgG alone was 8.6%. Most were women, 75.3%, and the average age was 43 years (18 to 78 years). Median liver enzymes in HEV-positive patients were AST (27.5 IU/L), ALT (21 IU/L), and GGT (58.5 IU/L). Among the samples, 81% of the residences were in rural areas, 90.5% did not have a sewage system, 94.6% had running water, and 39.5% worked or worked with animal husbandry. Only 1.4% experienced flooding. The majority, 95.4%, consume pork and/or derivatives and 19.7% consume hunting meat. Conclusions: A seroprevalence of 8.6% was found, higher than the result in a parallel study of our team in Salvador City (1.8%) and associated with a lack of basic sanitation, especially in rural areas.

In this study, we investigated the capacity of the recombinant proteins SpaC, NanH, SodC, and PLD of C. pseudotuberculosis to trigger protective humoral and cellular immune responses against experimentally induced C. pseudotuberculosis infection in sheep. The antigens were produced in a heterologous system and were purified by affinity chromatography. Nine sheep were randomly divided into three groups, which were immunized as follows: Group 1 (control)—a mix of adjuvants composed of the inactivated T1 strain of C. pseudotuberculosis and commercial Montanide™ISA 61 VG (T1M); Group 2—rSpaC, rSodC, rPLD, and T1M; Group 3—rNanH, rSodC, rPLD, and T1M. All groups were immunized twice (on days 0 and 30) and challenged on day 90 of the experiment. Humoral and cellular immune responses were evaluated by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to quantify the IgG antibodies and interferon-gamma (IFN-y). Both vaccine formulations with recombinant proteins (groups 2 and 3) could induce a significant humoral IgG immune response in sheep. The proteins rSodC, rPLD, and rNanH were more immunogenic, inducing significant levels of IgG antibodies after the first dose of the vaccine or after the challenge, maintaining constant levels until the end of the experiment. However, it was not possible to differentiate between the cellular responses induced by the vaccines. This lack of effectiveness points toward the need for further studies to improve the efficacy of this subunit-based vaccine approach.