LAUSR

Human pegivirus‐1 (HPgV‐1) is a member of the Flaviviridae family and the Pegivirus genus. Despite having been discovered 25 years ago, there is still much to know regarding HPgV‐1 clinical impact, as this virus is currently not associated with any pathology. Yet, HPgV‐1 prevalence and molecular characterization are still unknown in many countries, including Portugal. To fill in this knowledge gap, this study aimed to determine the occurrence and molecular characterization of HPgV‐1 in a group of healthy blood donors from the north of Portugal. Blood samples from 465 Portuguese blood donors were collected from a major Hospital Center in the north of Portugal. RNA was extracted and an initial nested RT‐PCR was performed targeting the conserved 5′‐untranslated region region of the HPgV‐1 genome. A second nested RT‐PCR targeting the E2 region was performed for genotyping. Only one sample tested positive for HPgV‐1 RNA, resulting in a prevalence of approximately 0.22%. Phylogenetic analyses confirmed the characterization as genotype 2, the most prevalent in Europe.