School of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, South Korea.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2009 Dec;75(24):7745-51. doi: 10.1128/AEM.01629-09. Epub 2009 Oct 23.
Raw vegetables irrigated with groundwater that may contain enteric viruses can be associated with food-borne viral disease outbreaks. In this study, we performed reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and cell culture-PCR to monitor the occurrence of enteric viruses in groundwater samples and in raw vegetables that were cultivated using that groundwater in South Korea. Samples were collected 10 times from three farms located in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. RT-PCR and cell culture-PCR were performed to detect adenoviruses (AdVs), enteroviruses (EVs), noroviruses (NoVs), and rotaviruses, followed by sequence analyses of the detected strains. Of the 29 groundwater samples and the 30 vegetable samples, five (17%) and three (10%) were positive for enteric viruses, respectively. AdVs were the most frequently detected viruses in four groundwater and three vegetable samples. EVs and NoVs were detected in only one groundwater sample and one spinach sample, respectively. The occurrence of enteric viruses in groundwater and vegetable samples was not correlated with the water temperature and the levels of indicator bacteria, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that most of the detected AdVs were temporally distributed, irrespective of sample type. Our results indicate that raw vegetables may be contaminated with a broad range of enteric viruses, which may originate from virus-infected farmers and virus-contaminated irrigation water, and these vegetables may act as a potential vector of food-borne viral transmission.
生食用地下水灌溉的蔬菜可能会携带肠道病毒，进而引发食源性病毒病暴发。本研究采用逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）和细胞培养-PCR 法，监测韩国地下水样本和使用该地下水种植的蔬菜中肠道病毒的发生情况。在韩国京畿道的三个农场，我们共采集了 10 次样本。采用 RT-PCR 和细胞培养-PCR 检测腺病毒（AdVs）、肠病毒（EVs）、诺如病毒（NoVs）和轮状病毒，然后对检测到的病毒株进行序列分析。在 29 个地下水样本和 30 个蔬菜样本中，分别有 5 个（17%）和 3 个（10%）样本检测出肠道病毒呈阳性。在 4 个地下水样本和 3 个蔬菜样本中，AdVs 是最常检测到的病毒。在 1 个地下水样本和 1 个菠菜样本中，分别检测到 EVs 和 NoVs。肠道病毒在地下水和蔬菜样本中的检出率与水温及指示菌水平均无相关性。系统进化分析表明，大多数检测到的 AdVs 与样本类型无关，具有时间分布特征。我们的研究结果表明，生食蔬菜可能被广泛的肠道病毒污染，这些病毒可能来源于病毒感染的农民和受病毒污染的灌溉用水，这些蔬菜可能成为食源性病毒传播的潜在载体。
