IntroductionHepatitis E virus (HEV), the causative agent of hepatitis E (HE),is a single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus (Meng et al., 2012).It is classified as the sole member of the genus Hepevirus in thefamily Hepeviridae. HEV is transmitted primarily by the fecal–oralroute and causes epidemic and sporadic cases of acute hepatitisthroughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Furthermore, chronichepatitis E has been observed in recipients of solid-organ trans-plantation (Kamar et al., 2008). The genome of HEV contains threeopen reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 at the 5end of the genome codesfor several nonstructural proteins, ORF2 encodes the immunodom-inant capsid protein and the partially overlapping ORF3 codes fora cytoskeleton-associated phosphoprotein with multiple functions