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. 2021 Feb:193:110531.
doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110531. Epub 2020 Nov 26.

Intraday variability of indicator and pathogenic viruses in 1-h and 24-h composite wastewater samples: Implications for wastewater-based epidemiology

Warish Ahmed  1 , Aaron Bivins  2 , Paul M Bertsch  3 , Kyle Bibby  2 , Pradip Gyawali  4 , Samendra P Sherchan  5 , Stuart L Simpson  6 , Kevin V Thomas  7 , Rory Verhagen  7 , Masaaki Kitajima  8 , Jochen F Mueller  7 , Asja Korajkic  9
Affiliations

Intraday variability of indicator and pathogenic viruses in 1-h and 24-h composite wastewater samples: Implications for wastewater-based epidemiology

Warish Ahmed et al. Environ Res. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

We monitored the concentration of indicator viruses crAssphage and pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) and human pathogen adenovirus (HAdV) in influent from a wastewater treatment plant in Brisbane, Australia in 1-h and 24-h composite samples. Over three days of sampling, the mean concentration of crAssphage gene copies (GC)/mL in 24-h composite samples did not differ significantly (p = 0.72-0.92), while for PMMoV GC/mL (p value range: 0.0002-0.0321) and HAdV GC/mL (p value range: 0.0028-0.0068) significant differences in concentrations were observed on one day of sampling compared to the other two. For all three viruses, the variation observed in 1-h composite samples was greater than the variation observed in 24-h composite samples. For crAssphage, in 54.1% of 1-h composite samples, the concentration was less than that observed in 24-h composite samples; whereas for PMMoV and HAdV the concentration was less in 79.2 and 70.9% of 1-h composite samples, respectively, compared to the relevant 24-h composite samples. Similarly, the concentration of crAssphage in 1-h compared to 24-h composite samples did not differ (p = 0.1082) while the concentrations of PMMoV (p < 0.0001) and HAdV (p < 0.0001) in 1-h composite samples were significantly different from 24-h composite samples. These results suggest that 24-h composite samples offer increased analytical sensitivity and decreased variability compared to 1-h composite samples when monitoring wastewater, especially for pathogenic viruses with low infection rates within a community. Thus, for wastewater-based epidemiology applications, 24-h composite samples are less likely to produce false negative results and erroneous public health information.

Keywords: Enteric viruses; Enveloped viruses; Epidemiology; Human health risks; Surveillance; WBE; Wastewater.

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Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
Concentrations (log10 GC/mL) of (A) crAssphage, (B) HAdV, and (C) PMMoV in the 1-h and 24-h time-based composite samples.
Fig. 2:
Fig. 2:
Percentage increase of crAssphage, HAdV and PMMoV in 24-h composite samples compared to the 1-h composite samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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