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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2006, p. 7438-7444, Vol. 72, No. 12
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01024-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Quantitative Detection of Hepatitis A Virus and Enteroviruses Near the United States-Mexico Border and Correlation with Levels of Fecal Indicator Bacteria{triangledown}

Richard M. Gersberg,1* Michael A. Rose,1 Refugio Robles-Sikisaka,2 and Arun K. Dhar2

Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 92182,1 Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California 921822

Received 2 May 2006/ Accepted 4 September 2006

For decades, untreated sewage flowing northward from Tijuana, Mexico, via the Tijuana River has adversely affected the water quality of the recreational beaches of San Diego, California. We used quantitative reverse transcription-PCR to measure the levels of hepatitis A virus (HAV) and enteroviruses in coastal waters near the United States-Mexico border and compared these levels to those of the conventional fecal indicators, Escherichia coli and enterococci. Over a 2-year period from 2003 to 2005, a total of 20 samples were assayed at two sites during both wet and dry weather: the surfzone at the mouth of the Tijuana River and the surfzone near the pier at Imperial Beach (IB), California (about 2 km north of the mouth of the Tijuana River). HAV and enterovirus were detected in 79 and 93% of the wet-weather samples, respectively. HAV concentrations in these samples ranged from 105 to 30,771 viral particles/liter, and enterovirus levels ranged from 7 to 4,417 viral particles/liter. The concentrations of HAV and enterovirus were below the limit of detection for all dry weather samples collected at IB. Regression analyses showed a significant correlation between the densities of both fecal bacterial indicators and the levels of HAV (R2 > 0.61, P < 0.0001) and enterovirus (R2 > 0.70, P < 0.0001), a finding that supports the use of conventional bacterial indicators to predict the levels of these viruses in recreational marine waters.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182. Phone: (619) 594-2905. Fax: (619) 594-6112. E-mail: rgersber{at}mail.sdsu.edu.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 15 September 2006.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 2006, p. 7438-7444, Vol. 72, No. 12
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01024-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Rodriguez, R. A., Pepper, I. L., Gerba, C. P. (2009). Application of PCR-Based Methods To Assess the Infectivity of Enteric Viruses in Environmental Samples. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75: 297-307 [Full Text]  


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