Nucleic Acid Detection of Major Foodborne Viral Pathogens Human: Noroviruses and Hepatitis A Virus

Abstract

Human noroviruses (hNoVs) and hepatitis A virus (HAV) are the leading cause of foodborne viral illness, and they exact a considerable economic and health toll worldwide. The detection of viral contamination in foods requires highly sensitive and accurate methods, due to the intrinsically low amounts of viruses and the complexity of the sample matrices. In recent years, a wide variety of nucleic acid-based molecular methods have been developed for the detection of hNoVs and HAV, displaying superior sensitivity, specificity, and speed. This chapter aims to provide a summary of the application of the molecular methods for the detection of the two important foodborne viruses.

Development of a Tetraplex qPCR for the Molecular Identification and Quantification of Human Enteric Viruses, NoV and HAV, in Fish Samples

“…NoV and HAV are the leading cause of foodborne viral infections, being responsible for considerable economic and health burdens globally. Moreover, of all the viruses associated with foodborne infections, NoV and HAV are the most important viral pathogens regarding the severity of the associated illnesses and their common occurrence worldwide [23]. They are transmitted as a result of consumption of not only contaminated food and water but also through direct contact with infected individuals and environmental surfaces exposed to these viruses.…”

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology as an Early Warning System for the Spreading of SARS-CoV-2 and Its Mutations in the Population

“…Thereafter, the cDNA can serve as a template for PCR amplification. RT-PCR can be generally performed either in a one-step (RT carried out in the same tube as PCR) or two-step (RT carried out in a separate reaction) format [ 113 , 114 ].…”

“…The major benefit of dPCR over qPCR is the direct absolute quantification of virus genome copy numbers in a sample without the necessity of external calibration. This improvement is achieved by partitioning of amplification reactions into thousands of small reaction volumes (typically nanoliters) so that each individual reaction mixture contains zero or a single copy of the target molecule [ 87 , 114 ]. After thermal cycling and read-out, each miniature reaction can be scored as either positive (fluorescent) or negative; thus, the Poisson statistics can be performed for calculation of the initial number of targets [ 121 ].…”