High prevalence of hepatitis E virus in raw sewage in Southern Italy

Profio, Federica Di; Melegari, Irene; Palombieri, Andrea; Sarchese, Vittorio; Arbuatti, Alessio; Fruci, Paola; Marsilio, Fulvio; Martella, Vito; Martino, Barbara Di

doi:10.1016/j.virusres.2019.197710

Cited by 29 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In addition, two samples contained HEV genotype 3f. HEV-3c and HEV-3f were also recently reported in wastewater in Italy (Di Profio et al 2019). Of our three samples which could not be subtyped exactly, two are most likely of subtype 3a and one of subtype 3c or 3i.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Detection and Characterization of Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3 in Wastewater and Urban Surface Waters in Germany

et al. 2020

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In highly populated areas, environmental surveillance of wastewater and surface waters is a key factor to control the circulation of viruses and risks for public health. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotype 3 is considered as an emerging pathogen in industrialized countries. Therefore, this study was carried out to determine the prevalence of HEV in environmental waters in urban and suburban regions in Germany. HEV was monitored in water samples using quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) and nested RT-PCR without or with virus concentration via polyethylene glycol precipitation or ultracentrifugation. By RT-qPCR, 84-100% of influent samples of wastewater treatment plants were positive for HEV RNA. Genotypes HEV-3c and 3f were identified in wastewater, with HEV-3c being the most prevalent genotype. These data correlate with subtypes identified earlier in patients from the same area. Comparison of wastewater influent and effluent samples revealed a reduction of HEV RNA of about 1 log 10 during passage through wastewater treatment plants. In addition, combined sewer overflows (CSOs) after heavy rainfalls were shown to release HEV RNA into surface waters. About 75% of urban river samples taken during these CSO events were positive for HEV RNA by RT-qPCR. In contrast, under normal weather conditions, only around 30% of river samples and 15% of samples from a bathing water located at an urban river were positive for HEV. Median concentrations of HEV RNA of all tested samples at this bathing water were below the limit of detection.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Detection and Characterization of Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3 in Wastewater and Urban Surface Waters in Germany

et al. 2020

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“…Amplification with RT-PCR enabled the analysis of AiVs which are not easily cultivable in the laboratory. The RT-PCR method was also used to amplify the nucleic acids of HEVs, which are positive-strand RNA viruses, in influent and effluent samples of wastewater treatment plants ( Di Profio et al, 2019 ; Masclaux et al, 2013 ). Osuolale and Okoh (2017) successfully used RT-PCR to amplify the nucleic acids of the RNA viruses enterovirus (EV) and RoV, in wastewater effluent samples.…”

Section: Detection Methods Of Viruses In Wastewatermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies concerned with the detection of viruses in wastewater have applied the Sanger method using commercially available sequencing kits such as the BigDye Terminator Cycle ( Di Profio et al, 2019 ; Hellmér et al, 2014b ; Ibrahim et al, 2017 ; Montazeri et al, 2015 ; Prado et al, 2011 ). Most of the sequencing analyses used in these and similar studies are now automated to increase speed and sensitivity of the process ( Artika et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Detection Methods Of Viruses In Wastewatermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Viruses in wastewater: occurrence, abundance and detection methods

Corpuz

Buonerba

Vigliottá

et al. 2020

Science of The Total Environment

215

178

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This paper presents an updated and comprehensive review on the different methods used for detection and quantification of viruses in wastewater treatment systems. The analysis of viability of viruses in wastewater and sludge is another thrust of this review. Recent studies have mostly focused on determining the abundance and diversity of viruses in wastewater influents, in samples from primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment stages, and in final effluents. A few studies have also examined the occurrence and diversity of viruses in raw and digested sludge samples. Recent efforts to improve efficiency of virus detection and quantification methods in the complex wastewater and sludge matrices are highlighted in this review. A summary and a detailed comparison of the pre-treatment methods that have been utilized for wastewater and sludge samples are also presented. The role of metagenomics or sequencing analysis in monitoring wastewater systems to predict disease outbreaks, to conduct public health surveillance, to assess the efficiency of existing treatment systems in virus removal, and to re-evaluate current regulations regarding pathogenic viruses in wastewater is discussed in this paper. Challenges and future perspectives in the detection of viruses, including emerging and newly emerged viruses such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), in wastewater systems are discussed in this review.

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“…In addition, several unassigned subtypes and uncommon strains have been recently proposed (Smith et al, 2016). HEV-3c, HEV-3e, and HEV-3f have been reported not only in humans and animals (pigs and wild boar) but also in contaminated food items of pork (pig liver sausage) and wild boar (sausages) (Colson et al, 2010;Di Bartolo et al, 2015;Garbuglia et al, 2015;Montone et al, 2019) and in the environment (Di Profio et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular Characterization of HEV Genotype 3 in Italy at Human/Animal Interface

et al. 2020

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Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging public health issue in industrialized countries. In the last decade the number of autochthonous human infections has increased in Europe. Genotype 3 (HEV-3) is typically zoonotic, being foodborne the main route of transmission to humans, and is the most frequently detected in Europe in both humans and animals (mainly pigs and wild boars). In Italy, the first autochthonous human case was reported in 1999; since then, HEV-3 has been widely detected in both humans and animals. Despite the zoonotic characteristic of HEV-3 is well established, the correlation between animal and human strains has been poorly investigated in Italy. In the present study, we compared the subtype distribution of HEV-3 in humans and animals (swine and wild boar) in the period 2000-2018 from Italy. The dataset for this analysis included a total of 96 Italian ORF2 sequences (300 nt long), including both NCBI databasederived (n = 64) and recent sequences (2016-2018, n = 32) obtained in this study. The results show that subtype 3f is the most frequent in humans and pigs, followed by the HEV-3e, HEV-3c and other unassignable HEV-3 strains. Diversely, in wild boar a wider group of HEV-3 subtypes have been detected, including HEV-3a, which has also been detected for the first time in a human patient in Central Italy in 2017, and a wide group of unassignable HEV-3 strains. The phylogenetic analysis including, besides Italian strains, also sequences from other countries retrieved from the NCBI database, indicated that human Italian sequences, in particular those of HEV-3f and HEV-3e, form significant clusters mainly with sequences of animal origin from the same country. Nevertheless, for HEV-3c, rarely detected in Italian pigs, human sequences from Italy are more correlated to human sequences from other European countries. Furthermore, clusters of nearidentical human strains identified in a short time interval in Lazio Region (Central Italy) can be recognized in the phylogenetic tree, suggesting that multiple infections originating from a common source have occurred, and confirming the importance of sequencing support to HEV surveillance.

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High prevalence of hepatitis E virus in raw sewage in Southern Italy

Cited by 29 publications

References 25 publications

Detection and Characterization of Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3 in Wastewater and Urban Surface Waters in Germany

Detection and Characterization of Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3 in Wastewater and Urban Surface Waters in Germany

Viruses in wastewater: occurrence, abundance and detection methods

Molecular Characterization of HEV Genotype 3 in Italy at Human/Animal Interface

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