Canh Vu Duc, Singhopon Tippawan, Kasuga Ikuro, Katayama Hiroyuki
Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan; Research Center for Water Environment Technology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan; Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand; Research Center for Environmental and Hazardous Substance Management, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
Sci Total Environ. 2025 Aug 10;989:179787. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179787. Epub 2025 Jun 10.
Wastewater reuse can play an important role in addressing water scarcity. However, there is concern about health risks associated with wastewater reuse due to the presence of pathogenic viruses and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in wastewater. This study aimed to assess the occurrence and removal of viruses and antibiotic resistance genes in both pre- and post-treatment of conventional activated sludge (CAS) and membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems. A total of 124 wastewater samples were collected from a wastewater treatment plant in Japan, including 31 samples before each CAS and MBR treatment, as well as 31 samples after each CAS and MBR treatment. Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) was found to be the most abundant virus in wastewater, with a detection rate of 100 % before and after CAS and MBR treatments, while enteric viruses such as Aichivirus 1 (AiV), noroviruses of genotypes I (NoV I) and II (NoV II), and enterovirus (EV) were detected at rates ranging from 6 to 97 % before treatments, 0-71 % after CAS treatment, and 3-37 % after MBR treatment. Additionally, the removal of PMMoV (log reduction value:1.3 and 3.8 log) was lower than that of tested enteric viruses (2.1-3.0 log and 2.2-5.0 log) by CAS and MBR systems, respectively. Thus, PMMoV can be a good indicator for evaluating virus removal by both CAS and MBR treatments. MBR was able to remove the tested viruses by 1.3-2.9 log better than CAS. Furthermore, before wastewater treatments, some ARGs in bacteriophage fraction such as tetA, sul1, and int1 were detected at rates ranging from 14 % to 29 %. They were still detected in treated wastewater (both CAS and MBR systems) at rates of 7-21 %. This result suggests that CAS and even MBR can not completely remove ARGs in bacteriophage fraction, which may potentially affect transduction incidence in environmental settings.
废水回用在解决水资源短缺问题方面可发挥重要作用。然而，由于废水中存在致病病毒和抗生素抗性基因（ARGs），人们对废水回用带来的健康风险表示担忧。本研究旨在评估常规活性污泥（CAS）和膜生物反应器（MBR）系统预处理和后处理过程中病毒和抗生素抗性基因的出现情况及去除效果。从日本一家污水处理厂共采集了124份废水样本，包括CAS和MBR每次处理前的31份样本以及每次处理后的31份样本。发现辣椒轻斑驳病毒（PMMoV）是废水中含量最高的病毒，在CAS和MBR处理前后的检出率均为100%，而诸如艾柯病毒1型（AiV）、I型诺如病毒（NoV I）和II型诺如病毒（NoV II）以及肠道病毒（EV）等肠道病毒在处理前的检出率为6%至97%，CAS处理后为0%至71%，MBR处理后为3%至37%。此外，CAS和MBR系统对PMMoV的去除率（对数减少值分别为1.3和3.8 log）低于对受试肠道病毒的去除率（分别为2.1 - 3.0 log和2.2 - 5.0 log）。因此，PMMoV可作为评估CAS和MBR处理对病毒去除效果的良好指标。MBR对受试病毒的去除效果比CAS好1.3 - 2.9 log。此外，在废水处理前，噬菌体部分中的一些ARGs如tetA、sul1和int1的检出率为14%至29%。在处理后的废水中（CAS和MBR系统）仍能检测到，检出率为7%至21%。这一结果表明，CAS甚至MBR都无法完全去除噬菌体部分中的ARGs，这可能会对环境中的转导发生率产生潜在影响。
