Environmental stability of porcine respiratory coronavirus in aquatic environments

Abstract

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a family of viruses that are best known as the causative agents of human diseases like the common cold, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and COVID-19. CoVs spread by human-to-human transmission via droplets or direct contact. There is, however, concern about potential waterborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, as it has been found in wastewater facilities and rivers. To date, little is known about the stability of SARS-CoV-2 or any other free coronavirus in aquatic environments. The inactivation of terrestrial CoVs in seawater is rarely studied. Here, we use a porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV) that is commonly found in animal husbandry as a surrogate to study the stability of CoVs in natural water. A series of experiments were conducted in which PRCV (strain 91V44) was added to filtered and unfiltered fresh- and saltwater taken from the river Scheldt and the North Sea. Virus titres were then measured by TCID50-assays using swine testicle cell cultures after various incubation times. The results show that viral inactivation of PRCV in filtered seawater can be rapid, with an observed 99% decline in the viral load after just two days, which may depend on temperature and the total suspended matter concentration. PRCV degraded much slower in filtered water from the river Scheldt, taking over 15 days to decline by 99%, which was somewhat faster than the PBS control treatment (T99 = 19.2 days). Overall, the results suggest that terrestrial CoVs are not likely to accumulate in marine environments. Studies into potential interactions with exudates (proteases, nucleases) from the microbial food web are, however, recommended.

The One Health concept for the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 to marine ecosystems

“…Coronavirus remains viable on glass surfaces, plastic, and stainless steel for 2 and 4 days at 24°C room temperature, while on paper, it survives for 30 min and 3 h on tissue paper [95][96][97]. Some researchers suggested that SARS-CoV-2 is still active for 25 days at 5°C in the aquatic environment [80,97,98].…”

Elucidating the role of environmental management of forests, air quality, solid waste and wastewater on the dissemination of SARS-CoV-2

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Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus, Surrogate for Coronavirus Decay Measurement in French Coastal Waters and Contribution to Coronavirus Risk Evaluation

“…One study showed that SARS-CoV-2 lost its infectivity within 2 days in seawater at 23°C ( 30 ), but half-lives were not calculated, and this temperature is higher than those encountered in North-Western European countries like France. Another study calculated a time, in days, for virus titres to decrease by 90% (T90) of 1.1 day in filtered seawater at 20°C for the porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV) ( 31 ), and finally, a study showed a high impact of the temperature on the decay of SARS-CoV-2 in seawater by comparing conditions at 20°C and 4°C, with a T90 of 7 to 10 days ( 32 ). Intermediate temperatures were not tested.…”