Democratizing water monitoring: Implementation of a community-based qPCR monitoring program for recreational water hazards

Abstract

Recreational water monitoring can be challenging due to the highly variable nature of pathogens and indicator concentrations, the myriad of potential biological hazards to measure for, and numerous access points, both official and unofficial, that are used for recreation. The aim of this study was to develop, deploy, and assess the effectiveness of a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) community-based monitoring (CBM) program for the assessment of bacterial and parasitic hazards in recreational water. This study developed methodologies for performing qPCR 'in the field,' then engaged with water management and monitoring groups and tested the method in a real-world implementation study to evaluate the accuracy of CBM using qPCR both quantitatively and qualitatively. This study found high reproducibility between qPCR results performed by non-expert field users and expert laboratory results, suggesting that qPCR as a methodology could be amenable to a CBM program.

Simplifying Schistosome Surveillance: Using Molecular Cercariometry to Detect and Quantify Cercariae in Water

“…Others have suggested that cercariometry methods (manual or molecular) could be difficult to implement on a large scale because they require experts to carry them out in order to be successful [ 48 , 74 , 75 ]. However, recent research [ 17 , 75 ] has found that a community-based monitoring approach can be effective. Such programs involve community members that are familiar with the area and are invested in the health of the study ecosystems.…”

“…Such programs involve community members that are familiar with the area and are invested in the health of the study ecosystems. Data suggests that there can be high reproducibility achieved between the results from community partners and an expert laboratory when performing qPCR to monitor for the presence of different hazards present in water, including avian schistosome trematodes, cyanobacteria, and HF183 Bacteroides [ 75 ].…”

Development of a Molecular Snail Xenomonitoring Assay to Detect Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma bovis Infections in their Bulinus Snail Hosts

“…Although able to quantify levels of DNA within a sample, qPCR is more arduous to carry out and lesser suited for use in endemic settings. However, recent technological advances in sample preparation and DNA extraction methods have demonstrated robust field setting methodologies to conduct qPCR analysis capable of detecting avian trematodes and host species in Canadian lakes [56][57][58], which could potentially be modified to suit the detection of human and bovine schistosomes in sub-Saharan Africa, although cost and throughput would need to be considered.…”

Assay for Evaluating the Abundance of <em>Vibrio Cholerae</em> and Its O1 Serogroup Subpopulation Directly from Water Without DNA Extraction

“…Employing the Chai Open qPCR equipment -a low cost, portable qPCR machine -we demonstrate the potential for our designed set of qPCR primers to be utilized during field sampling. In-field quantification of prokaryotic and eukaryotic constituents of interest using Open qPCR have been recently performed on recreational waters in Alberta and present comparable results to conventional qPCR equipment [44]. Altogether, this method can determine the absolute abundance of this bacterium and the main serogroup associated with pathogenicity across hundreds of samples in a spatiotemporal gradient, making it possible to pinpoint the source of cholera outbreaks and warn of potential outbreaks.…”