Abstract
Detection of Aichi virus in humans was initially reported in Japan in 1989. To establish a timeline for the prevalence of Aichi virus infection among humans in the Netherlands, we conducted molecular analysis of archival water samples from 1987–2000 and 2009–2012. Aichi virus RNA was detected in 100% (8/8) of sewage samples and 100% (7/7) of surface water samples collected during 1987–2000 and 100% (8/8) of sewage samples and 71% (5/7) of surface water samples collected during 2009–2012. Several genotype A and B Aichi virus lineages were observed over the 25-year period studied, but the time course of viral genetic diversity showed recent expansion of the genotype B population over genotype A. Our results show that Aichi virus has been circulating among the human population in the Netherlands since before its initial detection in humans was reported and that genotype B now predominates in this country.
Highlights
Detection of Aichi virus in humans was initially reported in Japan in 1989
We found Aichi viruses were present in sewage and surface water samples originating from both sampling periods, 1987–2000 and 2009–2012 (15 samples from each period)
Aichi virus RNA was detected in 93% (28/30) and 83% (25/30) of water samples by testing that targeted the 3C and VP1 regions, respectively
Summary
Detection of Aichi virus in humans was initially reported in Japan in 1989. To establish a timeline for the prevalence of Aichi virus infection among humans in the Netherlands, we conducted molecular analysis of archival water samples from 1987–2000 and 2009–2012. Our results show that Aichi virus has been circulating among the human population in the Netherlands since before its initial detection in humans was reported and that genotype B predominates in this country. One indication that Aichi viruses may be transmitted by the fecal–oral route is the detection of these viruses in sewage samples in Tunisia [19], in surface waters in Venezuela [20], and in sewage and river waters in Japan [21]. Some of these studies demonstrated a high Aichi virus prevalence in water samples. Environmental surveillance studies are extremely useful to determine the circulation of viruses in the human population [22,23] and to obtain sequence information of the circulating strains
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