Brooks Chequita, Brooks Sebrina, Beasley Josie, Valley Jenna, Opata Michael, Karatan Ece, Bleich Rachel
Department of Biology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA.
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Chauvin, Louisiana, USA.
Microbiol Spectr. 2025 Feb 4;13(2):e0200324. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.02003-24. Epub 2025 Jan 10.
Testing for the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been crucial in tracking disease spread and informing public health decisions. Wastewater-based epidemiology has helped to alleviate some of the strain of testing through broader, population-level surveillance, and has been applied widely on college campuses. However, questions remain about the impact of various sampling methods, target types, environmental factors, and infrastructure variables on SARS-CoV-2 detection. Here, we present a data set of over 800 wastewater samples that sheds light on the influence of a variety of these factors on SARS-CoV-2 quantification using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) from building-specific sewage infrastructure. We consistently quantified a significantly higher number of copies of virus per liter for the target nucleocapsid 2 (N2) compared to nucleocapsid 1 (N1), regardless of the sampling method (grab vs composite). We further show some dormitory-specific differences in SARS-CoV-2 abundance, including correlations to dormitory population size. Environmental variables like precipitation and temperature show little to no impact on virus load, with the exception of higher temperatures for grab sample data. We observed significantly higher gene copy numbers of the Omicron variant than the Delta variant within ductile iron pipes but no difference in nucleocapsid abundance (N1 or N2) across the three different sewage pipe types in our data set. Our results indicate that contextual variables should be considered when interpreting wastewater-based epidemiological data.
Testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has been crucial in tracking the spread of the virus and informing public health decisions. SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA is shed by symptomatic and asymptomatic infected individuals, allowing its genetic material to be detected and quantified in wastewater. Here, we used wastewater-based epidemiology to measure SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA from several dormitories on the Appalachian State University campus and examined the impact of sampling methods, target types, environmental factors, and infrastructure variables on quantification. Changes in the quantification of SARS-CoV-2 were observed based on target type, as well as trends for the quantification of the Delta and Omicron variants by sampling method. These results highlight the value of applying the data-inquiry practices used in this study to better contextualize wastewater sampling results.
对2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的病原体严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）进行检测，对于追踪疾病传播和为公共卫生决策提供依据至关重要。基于废水的流行病学通过更广泛的人群水平监测，有助于缓解部分检测压力，并且已在大学校园广泛应用。然而，各种采样方法、目标类型、环境因素和基础设施变量对SARS-CoV-2检测的影响仍存在疑问。在此，我们展示了一个包含800多个废水样本的数据集，该数据集揭示了使用液滴数字PCR（ddPCR）从特定建筑的污水基础设施中检测到的多种上述因素对SARS-CoV-2定量的影响。无论采样方法（瞬时采样与混合采样）如何，我们始终发现，与核衣壳1（N1）相比，目标核衣壳2（N2）每升废水中的病毒拷贝数显著更高。我们还进一步展示了SARS-CoV-2丰度在不同宿舍之间的差异，包括与宿舍人口规模的相关性。除了瞬时采样数据在较高温度下的情况外，降水和温度等环境变量对病毒载量几乎没有影响。我们观察到，在球墨铸铁管中，奥密克戎变异株的基因拷贝数显著高于德尔塔变异株，但在我们数据集中的三种不同污水管类型中，核衣壳丰度（N1或N2）没有差异。我们的结果表明，在解释基于废水的流行病学数据时应考虑背景变量。
对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2），即2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的病原体进行检测，对于追踪病毒传播和为公共卫生决策提供依据至关重要。有症状和无症状感染者都会排出SARS-CoV-2病毒RNA，从而可以在废水中检测和定量其遗传物质。在此，我们利用基于废水的流行病学方法，对阿巴拉契亚州立大学校园里几个宿舍的SARS-CoV-2病毒RNA进行了测量，并研究了采样方法、目标类型、环境因素和基础设施变量对定量的影响。基于目标类型观察到了SARS-CoV-2定量的变化，以及通过采样方法对德尔塔和奥密克戎变异株进行定量的趋势。这些结果突出了应用本研究中使用的数据查询方法，以便更好地将废水采样结果置于背景中的价值。
