Shift of human pathogen community composition and their potential human health risk after supply suspension in tap water

Abstract

Water supply suspension–restoration can occur frequently due to the overhauling of civil infrastructure in developing countries and the shutdown of commercial buildings during the pandemic. For comprehensive insights into the effects of water supply suspension–restoration, this study characterized the variations of the pathogen community composition of the tap water and their infection risk under different water supply scenarios. Metagenomic sequencing revealed a significant change of the human pathogen profiles, among which the most dominant pathogen changed from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4.91%) to Acinetobacter johnsonii (0.59%). Furthermore, absolute quantification of pathogens by propidium-monoazide-qPCR revealed that the abundance of the three typical pathogens (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Mycobacterium avium and Salmonella sp.) showed an increase of 2.44 log to 3.60 log immediately after water supply suspension–restoration and did not return to the normal level even after 2-h supply restoration, except for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Quantitative microbial risk assessment suggested the infection risks of the three pathogens arising from direct utilization of tap water under stable water supply, including dermal exposure and oral intake, were all above the threshold of 10−4, and evidently increased after water supply suspension–restoration. This study warns us against the risk induced by the pathogens in tap water, especially after water supply suspension–restoration.