U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, RTP, NC, 27709, USA; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, PO Box 117, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 USA; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University, 1440 Canal Street, Suite 2100, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of North Carolina Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
Water Res. 2023 Jul 1;239:120008. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120008. Epub 2023 Apr 27.
Enteric disease remains one of the most common concerns for public health, particularly when it results from human exposure to surface and recreational waters contaminated with wastewater. Characterizing the temporal and spatial variation of enteric pathogens prevalent in wastewater is critical to develop approaches to mitigate their distribution in the environment. In this study, we aim to characterize pathogen variability and test the applicability of the human-associated wastewater indicator crAssphage as an indicator of enteric viral and bacterial pathogens. We conducted weekly samplings for 14 months from four wastewater treatment plants in North Carolina, USA. Untreated wastewater samples were processed using hollow fiber ultrafiltration, followed by secondary concentration methods. Adenovirus, norovirus, enterovirus, Salmonella, Shiga toxin 2 (stx), Campylobacter, and crAssphage were measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and reverse transcriptase (rt)-qPCR. Our results revealed significant correlations between crAssphage and human adenovirus, enterovirus, norovirus, Salmonella, and Campylobacter (p<0.01). Pathogens and crAssphage concentrations in untreated wastewater showed distinct seasonal patterns, with peak concentrations of crAssphage and viral pathogens in fall and winter, while bacterial pathogens showed peaked concentrations in either winter (Campylobacter), fall (Salmonella), or summer (stx). This study enhances the understanding of crAssphage as an alternative molecular indicator for both bacterial and viral pathogens. The findings of this study can also inform microbial modeling efforts for the prediction of the impact of wastewater pathogens on surface waters due to increased flooding events and wastewater overflows associated with climate change.
肠道疾病仍然是公共卫生最常见的关注点之一，尤其是当它是由于人类接触受废水污染的地表水和娱乐用水而导致的。描述废水中普遍存在的肠道病原体的时间和空间变化对于开发减轻其在环境中分布的方法至关重要。在这项研究中，我们旨在描述病原体的变异性，并测试人类相关废水指示物 crAssphage 作为肠道病毒和细菌病原体的指示物的适用性。我们在美国北卡罗来纳州的四个污水处理厂进行了为期 14 个月的每周采样。未处理的废水样品使用中空纤维超滤进行处理，然后采用二次浓缩方法。通过定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）和逆转录（rt）-qPCR 测量腺病毒、诺如病毒、肠病毒、沙门氏菌、志贺毒素 2（stx）、弯曲菌和 crAssphage。我们的结果显示，crAssphage 与人类腺病毒、肠病毒、诺如病毒、沙门氏菌和弯曲菌之间存在显著相关性（p<0.01）。未经处理的废水中病原体和 crAssphage 的浓度表现出明显的季节性模式，crAssphage 和病毒病原体的浓度在秋季和冬季达到峰值，而细菌病原体的浓度在冬季（弯曲菌）、秋季（沙门氏菌）或夏季（stx）达到峰值。这项研究增强了对 crAssphage 作为细菌和病毒病原体替代分子指示物的理解。这项研究的结果还可以为微生物建模工作提供信息，以预测由于气候变化引起的洪水事件和与洪水相关的废水溢流量增加对地表水的废水病原体的影响。
