Occurrence of enteroviruses, noroviruses, rotaviruses, and adenoviruses in a wastewater treatment plant

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the quality of wastewater by molecular identification of enteroviruses, rotaviruses, and adenoviruses in wastewater samples collected from the ElSerw wastewater treatment facility in Damietta Governorate, Egypt. An additional objective is to assess the usefulness of these viruses as markers of viral reduction during wastewater treatment. A treatment facility's inflow and discharge were sampled 48 times. The incidence of enteric viruses was found in 29 wastewater samples (60.4%). 6.25% (3/48), 0% (0/48), 37.5% (18/48), and 20.8% (10/48) of the samples tested positive for enteroviruses (EVs), noroviruses, rotaviruses, and adenoviruses, respectively. Co-infections with two or more viruses were found in 10.4% (5/48) and 2% (1/48) of all cases, respectively. The viral burden in the wastewater treatment plant's discharge effluents dropped non-significantly when compared to intake samples. According to our findings, rotaviruses and adenoviruses have been found in 10 outlet effluent samples. The removal rates for enteroviruses, rotaviruses and adenoviruses were 39%, 61.5% and 33.3%, respectively. As a result of their high frequency and lower removal rates, both rotaviruses and adenoviruses were deemed an appropriate indicator of human enteric viral reduction during the wastewater treatment process.