Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance

The aim of this work was to evaluate if rivers could be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Five sampling points from three rivers (AR-1 and AR-2 in Arenales River, MR-1 and MR-2 in Mojotoro River, and CR in La Caldera River) from Salta (Argentina), two of them receiving discharges from wastewater pla...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Maidana-Kulesza, María Noel, Poma, Hugo Ramiro, Sanguino-Jorquera, Diego Gastón, Reyes, Sarita Isabel, Del Milagro Said-Adamo, María, Mainardi-Remis, Juan Martín, Gutiérrez-Cacciabue, Dolores, Cristóbal, Héctor Antonio, Cruz, Mercedes Cecilia, Aparicio González, Mónica, Rajal, Verónica Beatriz
Other Authors: Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164279
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-164279
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1642792023-01-13T02:42:23Z Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance Maidana-Kulesza, María Noel Poma, Hugo Ramiro Sanguino-Jorquera, Diego Gastón Reyes, Sarita Isabel Del Milagro Said-Adamo, María Mainardi-Remis, Juan Martín Gutiérrez-Cacciabue, Dolores Cristóbal, Héctor Antonio Cruz, Mercedes Cecilia Aparicio González, Mónica Rajal, Verónica Beatriz Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering Social sciences::Geography Water Quality Human Tracers The aim of this work was to evaluate if rivers could be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Five sampling points from three rivers (AR-1 and AR-2 in Arenales River, MR-1 and MR-2 in Mojotoro River, and CR in La Caldera River) from Salta (Argentina), two of them receiving discharges from wastewater plants (WWTP), were monitored from July to December 2020. Fifteen water samples from each point (75 in total) were collected and characterized physico-chemically and microbiologically and SARS-CoV-2 was quantified by RT-qPCR. Also, two targets linked to human contributions, human polyomavirus (HPyV) and RNase P, were quantified and used to normalize SARS-CoV-2 concentration, which was compared to reported COVID-19 cases. Statistical analyses allowed us to verify the correlation between SARS-CoV-2 and the concentration of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), as well as to find similarities and differences between sampling points. La Caldera River showed the best water quality; FIBs were within acceptable limits for recreational activities. Mojotoro River's water quality was not affected by the northern WWTP of the city. Instead, Arenales River presented the poorest water quality; at AR-2 was negatively affected by the discharges of the southern WWTP, which contributed to significant increase of fecal contamination. SARS-CoV-2 was found in about half of samples in low concentrations in La Caldera and Mojotoro Rivers, while it was high and persistent in Arenales River. No human tracers were detected in CR, only HPyV was found in MR-1, MR-2 and AR-1, and both were quantified in AR-2. The experimental and normalized viral concentrations strongly correlated with reported COVID-19 cases; thus, Arenales River at AR-2 reflected the epidemiological situation of the city. This is the first study showing the dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 concentration in an urban river highly impacted by wastewater and proved that can be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to support health authorities. This research was funded by Project COVID-19 233-785, from Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (FONCyT), Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Investigación, el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación, Argentina. María Noel Maidana Kulesza, Diego Gastón Sanguino-Jorquera, Sarita Reyes, María del Milagro Said-Adamo, and Martín Mainardi Remis are recipients of doctoral fellowships from CONICET. 2023-01-13T02:42:23Z 2023-01-13T02:42:23Z 2022 Journal Article Maidana-Kulesza, M. N., Poma, H. R., Sanguino-Jorquera, D. G., Reyes, S. I., Del Milagro Said-Adamo, M., Mainardi-Remis, J. M., Gutiérrez-Cacciabue, D., Cristóbal, H. A., Cruz, M. C., Aparicio González, M. & Rajal, V. B. (2022). Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance. Science of the Total Environment, 848, 157707-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157707 0048-9697 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164279 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157707 35908692 2-s2.0-85135511402 848 157707 en Science of the Total Environment © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Geography
Water Quality
Human Tracers
spellingShingle Social sciences::Geography
Water Quality
Human Tracers
Maidana-Kulesza, María Noel
Poma, Hugo Ramiro
Sanguino-Jorquera, Diego Gastón
Reyes, Sarita Isabel
Del Milagro Said-Adamo, María
Mainardi-Remis, Juan Martín
Gutiérrez-Cacciabue, Dolores
Cristóbal, Héctor Antonio
Cruz, Mercedes Cecilia
Aparicio González, Mónica
Rajal, Verónica Beatriz
Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance
description The aim of this work was to evaluate if rivers could be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Five sampling points from three rivers (AR-1 and AR-2 in Arenales River, MR-1 and MR-2 in Mojotoro River, and CR in La Caldera River) from Salta (Argentina), two of them receiving discharges from wastewater plants (WWTP), were monitored from July to December 2020. Fifteen water samples from each point (75 in total) were collected and characterized physico-chemically and microbiologically and SARS-CoV-2 was quantified by RT-qPCR. Also, two targets linked to human contributions, human polyomavirus (HPyV) and RNase P, were quantified and used to normalize SARS-CoV-2 concentration, which was compared to reported COVID-19 cases. Statistical analyses allowed us to verify the correlation between SARS-CoV-2 and the concentration of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), as well as to find similarities and differences between sampling points. La Caldera River showed the best water quality; FIBs were within acceptable limits for recreational activities. Mojotoro River's water quality was not affected by the northern WWTP of the city. Instead, Arenales River presented the poorest water quality; at AR-2 was negatively affected by the discharges of the southern WWTP, which contributed to significant increase of fecal contamination. SARS-CoV-2 was found in about half of samples in low concentrations in La Caldera and Mojotoro Rivers, while it was high and persistent in Arenales River. No human tracers were detected in CR, only HPyV was found in MR-1, MR-2 and AR-1, and both were quantified in AR-2. The experimental and normalized viral concentrations strongly correlated with reported COVID-19 cases; thus, Arenales River at AR-2 reflected the epidemiological situation of the city. This is the first study showing the dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 concentration in an urban river highly impacted by wastewater and proved that can be used for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance to support health authorities.
author2 Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering
author_facet Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences and Engineering
Maidana-Kulesza, María Noel
Poma, Hugo Ramiro
Sanguino-Jorquera, Diego Gastón
Reyes, Sarita Isabel
Del Milagro Said-Adamo, María
Mainardi-Remis, Juan Martín
Gutiérrez-Cacciabue, Dolores
Cristóbal, Héctor Antonio
Cruz, Mercedes Cecilia
Aparicio González, Mónica
Rajal, Verónica Beatriz
format Article
author Maidana-Kulesza, María Noel
Poma, Hugo Ramiro
Sanguino-Jorquera, Diego Gastón
Reyes, Sarita Isabel
Del Milagro Said-Adamo, María
Mainardi-Remis, Juan Martín
Gutiérrez-Cacciabue, Dolores
Cristóbal, Héctor Antonio
Cruz, Mercedes Cecilia
Aparicio González, Mónica
Rajal, Verónica Beatriz
author_sort Maidana-Kulesza, María Noel
title Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance
title_short Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance
title_full Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance
title_fullStr Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance
title_full_unstemmed Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance
title_sort tracking sars-cov-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/164279
_version_ 1756370559778684928