In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) emerged as a useful tool to account for the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections on a population scale. In this study, we analyzed wastewater samples from three large (>300,000 people served) and four small (<25,000 people served) communities throughout southern Germany from August to December 2021, capturing the fourth infection wave in Germany dominated by the Delta variant (B.1.617.2). As dilution can skew the SARS-CoV-2 biomarker concentrations in wastewater, normalization to wastewater parameters can improve the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 biomarker data and clinical prevalence data. In this study, we investigated the suitability and performance of various normalization parameters. Influent flow data showed strong relationships to precipitation data; accordingly, flow-normalization reacted distinctly to precipitation events. Normalization by surrogate viruses CrAssphage and pepper mild mottle virus showed varying performance for different sampling sites. The best normalization performance was achieved with a mixed fecal indicator calculated from both surrogate viruses. Analyzing the temporal and spatial variation of normalization parameters proved to be useful to explain normalization performance. Overall, our findings indicate that the performance of surrogate viruses, flow, and hydro-chemical data is site-specific. We recommend testing the suitability of normalization parameters individually for specific sewage systems.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.2c00306 | DOI Listing |
BMC Genomics
January 2025
Department of Virology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, 0456, Norway.
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of virus surveillance in public health and wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as a non-invasive, cost-effective method for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 and its variants at the community level. Unfortunately, current variant surveillance methods depend heavily on updated genomic databases with data derived from clinical samples, which can become less sensitive and representative as clinical testing and sequencing efforts decline.In this paper, we introduce HERCULES (High-throughput Epidemiological Reconstruction and Clustering for Uncovering Lineages from Environmental SARS-CoV-2), an unsupervised method that uses long-read sequencing of a single 1 Kb fragment of the Spike gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Pharm Biomed Anal
January 2025
Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia; Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Jamova 39, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia. Electronic address:
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) offers a promising approach by providing objective data on antipsychotic drug consumption within a population that can be used to monitor abuse, misuse, and regional prescription patterns. However, accurate estimations depend on knowing the stability of drug biomarkers. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the stability of 11 antipsychotic biomarkers (parent drugs and their metabolites) in influent wastewater, using a series of experiments mimicking in-sewer transport (in-sewer setup and deconjugation) and in-sample stability (benchtop, frozen cartridge, long-term sample storage, and freeze-thaw).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol
January 2025
University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Department of Water Protection Engineering and Environmental Microbiology, Prawochenskiego 1, Olsztyn 10-790, Poland.
Environ Int
January 2025
Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4102, Australia.
Allergies have become an important public health issue as their occurrence is reportedly on the rise around the world. Exposure to environmental factors is considered as trigger for allergic diseases. However, there was limited data on the importance of each factor, particularly in China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViruses
January 2025
National Center for Water Safety (CeNSia), Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
Human noroviruses (HNoVs) are a leading cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide, with significant public health implications. In this study, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was used to monitor the circulation and genetic diversity of HNoVs in Rome over an eight-year period (2017-2024). A total of 337 wastewater samples were analyzed using RT-nested PCR and next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify genogroups GI and GII and their respective genotypes.
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