Human Adenovirus ecology in environmental waters in New Zealand
2008
Dong, Y | Lewis, GD
A major New Zealand study of pathogen occurrence in surface freshwaters identified occurrence of human adenovirus in 30% of sites and samples by qualitative PCR based methods. The source or nature of these viruses was not clear from the study and raises important questions in both viral ecology and human health protection. The aim of this study was to begin to unravel these questions by (i) development of specific quantitative analysis methods for adenoviruses in water and (ii) to target identifiable groups of adenovirus associated with human respiratory or gastrointestinal infections. These quantitative group specific real time PCR methods were tested in drinking water, recreational water, river water and wastewater. Adenovirus was detected in all primary wastewater samples tested (n=10) at high genome copy number (1.87 x104 to 4.6 x106 per litre) and in 33% (n=15) of the river water and 11% (n=27) of the treated drinking water samples. In addition, adenovirus was detected in 5 of the 6 estuarine recreational water samples (17 to 1190 virus genome copies per litre). DNA sequence analysis suggested that human adenovirus group C (respiratory infection associated) were most commonly associated with river, recreational and drinking water. Group F adenovirus (gastroenteritis associated viruses) were found to dominate in most wastewater (5 - 100 % total adenovirus) but were not detected in surface waters. This study suggests that the ecology of specific groups or types of adenovirus is sufficiently different, external to the host, to have important implications for human health risk assessment.
显示更多 [+] 显示较少 [-]