Environmental monitoring of Aichi virus and human bocavirus in samples from wastewater treatment plant, drain, and River Nile in Egypt

Abstract

Wastewater plays a major role in water pollution causing transmission of several viral pathogens, including Aichi virus (AiV) and human bocavirus (HBoV), associated with gastrointestinal illness in humans. In this study, we investigated the presence of AiV and HBoV in aquatic, sludge, sediment matrices collected from Abu-Rawash wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), El-Rahawy drain, Rosetta branch of the River Nile in Egypt by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR). AiV RNA was detected in 16.6% (2/12), 8.3% (1/12), 8.3% (1/12), 22% (16/72), 12.5% (3/24), 4% (1/24), and 0/24 (0%) of untreated raw sewage, treated sewage, sewage sludge, drainage water, drain sediment, river water, and river sediment, respectively. On the other hand, HBoV DNA was detected in 41.6% (5/12), 25% (3/12), 16.6% (2/12), 48.6% (35/72), 29% (7/24), 3/24 (12.5%), 4% (1/24) of untreated raw sewage, treated raw sewage, sewage sludge, drainage water, drain sediment, river water, and river sediment, respectively. This study provides data on the presence of these viruses in various types of water samples that are valuable to environmental risk assessment. In addition, the current study demonstrates the importance of environmental monitoring as an additional tool to investigate the epidemiology of AiV and HBoV circulating in a given community.

Occurrence of Human Enteric Viruses in Water Sources and Shellfish: A Focus on Africa

“… (Ibrahim et al 2017a ) B RT-PCR † 3CD junction † & VP1 † SWG South Africa May 2016 (Onosi et al 2019 ) A Illumina Miseq N.A. DNW Kenya Jun–Aug 2016 (Hendriksen et al 2019 ) N.D. Semi-nested RT-PCR 3CD junction SWG (raw, sludge & treated), DNW, SW (river) & river sediment Egypt Oct 2017–Sep 2018 (Shaheen et al 2019a ) Hepatitis E virus Genotype 3 Nested RT-PCR † ORF1, ORF2 & ORF2/3 regions † SWG & WW (effluent) Egypt Jul 2006–Feb 2007 (Kamel et al 2011 ) N.D. RT-PCR ORF1, ORF2 & ORF2/3 regions SWG, SW & DW Egypt Oct 2006–Sep 2008 (El-Senousy et al 2014 ) Genotypes 1 & 3 RT-PCR † ORF1, ORF2 & ORF2/3 regions † SWG Tunisia 2007–2008 (Months N.R.) (Béji-Hamza et al 2015 ) Human adenovirus N.D. N.R.…”

“…Kiulia et al ( 2010 ) detected HAdV in 87.5-100% and RVA in 20-100% of raw sewage samples from two sewage treatment plants in Nairobi, Kenya, while another study detected calicivirus (NoV and SaV) RNA in 82% of raw sewage samples collected from 21 sewage treatment facilities across South Africa (Murray et al 2013a ). More recently, Shaheen et al ( 2019a , b ) detected AiV RNA and HBoV DNA in 16.6% and 41.6% of untreated raw sewage samples collected at the Abu-Rawash wastewater treatment plant in Giza, while HAdV and RV A were detected in 50% of urban sewage samples collected from the same site, with concentrations ranging from 10 3 -10 8 genome copies/litre (GC/L) (Elmahdy et al 2020 ). Enteric viruses were also recovered from final wastewater effluents in Egypt (Kamel et al 2010 ; Shaheen and Elmahdy 2019 ; Shaheen et al 2019a ), Ghana (Silverman et al 2013 ), Morocco (Amdiouni et al 2017 ), South Africa (Olaniran et al 2012 ; Osuolale and Okoh 2015 ; Adefisoye et al 2016 ) and Tunisia (Béji-Hamza et al 2014 , 2015 ; Hassine-Zaafrane et al 2014 ; Ouardani et al 2015 ; Varela et al 2018 ), even after treatment and chlorination.…”

“…The Nile is the main source of water for irrigation and domestic use in Egypt, however, many studies have found this river to be polluted with enteric viruses (El-Senousy et al 2013a , 2014 , 2015 ; Shaheen et al 2019b ). For example, 4%, 25%, 16.6%, 8.3% and 12.5% of water samples collected from the Rosetta branch of the Nile in 2017 and 2018 were contaminated with AiV, AstV, NoV, RV and HBoV, respectively (Shaheen et al 2018 , 2019a ; Shaheen and Elmahdy 2019 ), while more recently, Rizk and Allayeh, ( 2020 ) detected RVA RNA in 18.75% of Nile water samples collected in Giza. Similarly, enteric viruses have been found in major surface waters in Kenya, Chad, Nigeria and Uganda (Kiulia et al 2010 , 2014 ; Guerrero-Latorre et al 2011 ; Katukiza et al 2013a , 2013b ; Baker et al 2018 ; Bauza et al 2019 ; van Zyl et al 2019 ; Muhammad et al 2020 ).…”

“…More recently, Shaheen et al (2019a, b) detected AiV RNA and HBoV DNA in 16.6% and 41.6% of untreated raw sewage samples collected at the Abu-Rawash wastewater treatment plant in Giza, while HAdV and RV A were detected in 50% of urban sewage samples collected from the same site, with concentrations ranging from 10 3 -10 8 genome copies/litre (GC/L) (Elmahdy et al 2020). Enteric viruses were also recovered from final wastewater effluents in Egypt (Kamel et al 2010;Shaheen and Elmahdy 2019;Shaheen et al 2019a), Ghana (Silverman et al 2013), Morocco (Amdiouni et al 2017), South Africa (Olaniran et al 2012;Osuolale and Okoh 2015;Adefisoye et al 2016) and Tunisia (Béji- Hamza et al 2014Hamza et al , 2015Hassine-Zaafrane et al 2014;Ouardani et al 2015;Varela et al 2018), even after treatment and chlorination. Hamza et al, (2017) detected HBoV-1, -2 and -3 at concentrations of 2.9 × 10 3 GC/L, 4.1 × 10 3 GC/L and 2.1 × 10 3 GC/L in 34.3%, 84.4% and 87.5% of treated effluent samples, respectively.…”

Occurrence of various viruses and recent evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater systems

“… Adsorption-elution using electronegative membrane, method followed by PEG Total of 24 wastewater samples analysed (12 untreated and 12 treated). NA ( Shaheen et al, 2019 ) AiV-1 2/12 (16.6%) untreated and 1/12 (8.3%) treated. HBoV 5/12 (41.6%) untreated and 3/12 (25%) treated.…”