Abstract
Gastroenteritis viruses in wastewater reclamation systems can pose a major threat to public health. In this study, multiple gastroenteritis viruses were detected from wastewater to estimate the viral contamination sources in a wastewater treatment and reclamation system installed in a suburb of Xi’an city, China. Reverse transcription plus nested or semi-nested PCR, followed by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis, were used for detection and genotyping of noroviruses and rotaviruses. As a result, 91.7% (22/24) of raw sewage samples, 70.8% (17/24) of the wastewater samples treated by anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2O) process and 62.5% (15/24) of lake water samples were positive for at least one of target gastroenteritis viruses while all samples collected from membrane bioreactor effluent after free chlorine disinfection were negative. Sequence analyses of the PCR products revealed that epidemiologically minor strains of norovirus GI (GI/14) and GII (GII/13) were frequently detected in the system. Considering virus concentration in the disinfected MBR effluent which is used as the source of lake water is below the detection limit, these results indicate that artificial lake may be contaminated from sources other than the wastewater reclamation system, which may include aerosols, and there is a possible norovirus infection risk by exposure through reclaimed water usage and by onshore winds transporting aerosols containing norovirus.
Highlights
Wastewater treatment and reclamation systems using membrane technologies such as membrane bioreactor (MBR) are becoming increasingly employed in mitigating the shortage of clean water sources [1,2]
We analyzed the quantity of human norovirus GI, GII and rotavirus and their removal in a wastewater treatment plant utilized in a University Campus
The occurrences of viruses in samples collected from different sites were summarized in and GII were found in 52% (50/96) and rotavirus in 32% (31/96) of samples (Table 1)
Summary
Wastewater treatment and reclamation systems using membrane technologies such as membrane bioreactor (MBR) are becoming increasingly employed in mitigating the shortage of clean water sources [1,2]. Usage of reclaimed wastewater may increase the exposure risk of humans to pathogenic microorganisms, if the wastewater treatment system is not capable of effectively removing these microorganisms [3]. Indicator microorganisms are available to assess and guarantee the microbiological quality of water, because the presence of such indicator microorganisms points to the possible existence of similar pathogens and represents a failure in the treatment system which affects the final effluent [4,5]. Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) (total coliforms, fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, fecal streptococci and spores of sulphite-reducing clostridia) have been used to assess the water quality and treatment performance for decades [5]. It is unclear how to estimate the contribution of different sources of feces when sources are mixed, which would further hinder the water quality management and health risk evaluation
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