Environmental health of water bodies from a Brazilian Amazon Metropolis based on a conventional and metagenomic approach.

Aims: The present study aimed to use a conventional and metagenomic approach to investigate the microbiological diversity of water bodies in a network of drainage channels and rivers located in the central area of the city of Belém, northern Brazil, which is considered one of the largest cities in the Brazilian Amazon.

Methods And Results: In eight of the analyzed points, both bacterial and viral microbiological indicators of environmental contamination-physical-chemical and metals-were assessed. The bacterial resistance genes, drug resistance mechanisms, and viral viability in the environment were also assessed.

Diversity of picornaviruses detected in diarrheal samples from children in Belém, Brazilian Amazon (1982-2019).

In this investigation, fecal specimens from children with diarrhea were collected from four community studies conducted between 1982 and 2019 in Belém, Brazilian Amazon. A total of 234 samples were tested by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to detect infections by picornaviruses of the Enterovirus (EV), Parechovirus (HPeV), Cosavirus (HCoSV), Kobuvirus (Aichivirus - AiV) and Salivirus (SalV) genera. The positive samples were subjected to different amplification protocols of the VP1 region of the genome, such as nested PCR or snPCR, and were subsequently genotyped by sequencing VP1 and VP3 of the viral genome.