Frequent Detection of Highly Diverse Variants of Cardiovirus , Cosavirus , Bocavirus , and Circovirus in Sewage Samples Collected in the United States

Abstract

Untreated sewage samples from 12 cities in the United States were screened for the presence of recently characterized RNA and DNA viruses found at high prevalence in the stool specimens of South Asian children. Genetic variants of human cosaviruses and cardioviruses in the Picornaviridae family and of DNA circoviruses and human bocaviruses were detected, expanding the known genetic diversity and geographic range of these newly identified viruses. All four virus groups were detected in sewage samples of less than a milliliter from multiple U.S. cities. PCR screening of particle-protected viral nucleic acid in sewage samples could therefore rapidly establish the presence and determine the diversity of four newly described enteric viruses in large urban populations. More frequent and deeper sampling of viral nucleic acids in sewage samples could be used to monitor changes in the prevalence and genetic composition of these and other novel enteric viruses.

Potential role of viruses in white plague coral disease

“…Interestingly, SCSDVs have been found to be abundant in reclaimed waters and sewage, suggesting that SCSDVs in the diseased corals examined here could be linked to environment degradation (Blinkova et al, 2009;Rosario et al, 2009). Previously it has been shown that environmental viruses such as human enteroviruses and adenoviruses are present on coral mucus, suggesting that these associations were the result of anthropogenic pollution (for example, runoff; Lipp et al, 2002Lipp et al, , 2007Futch et al, 2010).…”

Two Closely Related Novel Picornaviruses in Cattle and Sheep in Hungary from 2008 to 2009, Proposed as Members of a New Genus in the Family Picornaviridae

“…In the last few years, there has been a surge in the number of novel picornaviruses discovered and genomes sequenced (4,13,14,15,17,23,33). In 2008, a novel picornavirus (porcine kobuvirus) was serendipitously identified by our laboratory from domestic pigs (25).…”

Polioviruses and other Enteroviruses

“…Screening of waste waters for human viruses in multiple geographical areas has revealed the presence of newly described genera of the Picornaviridae family, i.e., Cosavirus, Cardiovirus, Salivirus, Kobuvirus (Alcala et al, 2010;Blinkova et al, 2009;Haramoto and Otagiri, 2013;Kitajima et al, 2014b;. More recent, deep-sequencing analysis of viral metagenomes from sewage and sewage sludge (also known as sewage viromes) has indicated that these novel human picornaviruses can be found in most cases at relatively higher abundance and occurrence than members of the Enterovirus genus (Aw et al, 2014;Bibby and Peccia, 2013;Cantalupo et al, 2011;Ng et al, 2012).…”