Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb 20:756:144105.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144105. Epub 2020 Nov 28.

Evaluation of viral concentration methods for SARS-CoV-2 recovery from wastewaters

Patricia Angélica Barril  1 , Luis Alfredo Pianciola  2 , Melina Mazzeo  2 , María Julia Ousset  3 , María Virginia Jaureguiberry  4 , Mauricio Alessandrello  4 , Gloria Sánchez  5 , Juan Martín Oteiza  6
Affiliations

Evaluation of viral concentration methods for SARS-CoV-2 recovery from wastewaters

Patricia Angélica Barril et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a useful tool that has the potential to act as a complementary approach to monitor the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the community and as an early alarm system for COVID-19 outbreak. Many studies reported low concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 in sewage and also revealed the need for methodological validation for enveloped viruses concentration in wastewater. The aim of this study was to evaluate different methodologies for the concentration of viruses in wastewaters and to select and improve an option that maximizes the recovery of SARS-CoV-2. A total of 11 concentration techniques based on different principles were evaluated: adsorption-elution protocols with negatively charged membranes followed by polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation (Methods 1-2), PEG precipitation (Methods 3-7), aluminum polychloride (PAC) flocculation (Method 8), ultrafiltration (Method 9), skim milk flocculation (Method 10) and adsorption-elution with negatively charged membrane followed by ultrafiltration (Method 11). To evaluate the performance of these concentration techniques, feline calicivirus (FCV) was used as a process control in order to avoid the risk associated with handling SARS-CoV-2. Two protocols, one based on PEG precipitation and the other on PAC flocculation, showed high efficiency for FCV recovery from wastewater (62.2% and 45.0%, respectively). These two methods were then tested for the specific recovery of SARS-CoV-2. Both techniques could recover SARS-CoV-2 from wastewater, PAC flocculation showed a lower limit of detection (4.3 × 102 GC/mL) than PEG precipitation (4.3 × 103 GC/mL). This work provides a critical overview of current methods used for virus concentration in wastewaters and the analysis of sensitivity for the specific recovery of SARS-CoV-2 in sewage. The data obtained here highlights the viability of WBE for the surveillance of COVID-19 infections in the community.

Keywords: COVID-19 surveillance; Sewage; Viral concentration methods; Wastewater-based epidemiology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ahmed W., Bertsch P.M., Bivins A., Bibby K., Farkas K., Gathercole A., Haramoto E., Gyawali P., Korajkic A., McMinn B.R., Mueller J.F., Simpson S.L., Smith W.J.M., Symonds E.M., Thomas K.V., Verhagen R., Kitajima M. Comparison of virus concentration methods for the RT-qPCR-based recovery of murine hepatitis virus, a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 from untreated wastewater. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;739 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahmed W., Angel N., Edson J., Bibby K., Bivins A., O’Brien J.W., Choi P.M., Kitajima M., Simpson S.L., Li J., Tscharke B., Verhagen R., Smith W.J.M., Zaugg J., Dierens L., Hugenholtz P., Thomas K.V., Mueller J.F. First confirmed detection of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater in Australia: a proof of concept for the wastewater surveillance of COVID-19 in the community. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;728 doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138764. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Amirian S. Potential fecal transmission of SARS-CoV-2: current evidence and implications for public health. Int. J. Infect. Dis. 2020;95:363–370. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Assis ASF, Otenio MH, Drumond BP, Fumian TM, Miagostovich MP, da Rosa E Silva ML. (2017). Optimization of the skimmed-milk flocculation method for recovery of adenovirus from sludge. Sci. Total Environ. 583:163–168. - PubMed
    1. Bivins A., North D., Ahmad A., Ahmed W., Alm E., Been F., Bhattacharya P., Bijlsma L., Boehm A.B., Brown J., Buttiglieri G., Calabro V., Carducci A., Castiglioni S., Cetecioglu Gurol Z., Chakraborty S., Costa F., Curcio S., de Los Reyes F.L., 3rd, Delgado Vela J., Farkas K., Fernandez-Casi X., Gerba C., Gerrity D., Girones R., Gonzalez R., Haramoto E., Harris A., Holden P.A., Islam M.T., Jones D.L., Kasprzyk-Hordern B., Kitajima M., Kotlarz N., Kumar M., Kuroda K., La Rosa G., Malpei F., Mautus M., McLellan S.L., Medema G., Meschke J.S., Mueller J., Newton R.J., Nilsson D., Noble R.T., van Nuijs A., Peccia J., Perkins T.A., Pickering A.J., Rose J., Sanchez G., Smith A., Stadler L., Stauber C., Thomas K., van der Voorn T., Wigginton K., Zhu K., Bibby K. Wastewater-based epidemiology: global collaborative to maximize contributions in the fight against COVID-19. Environ Sci Technol. 2020;54(13):7754–7757. - PubMed