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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2008, p. 3394-3399, Vol. 74, No. 11
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02895-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Detection and Quantification of Group C Rotaviruses in Communal Sewage

Edina Meleg,^1,4, Krisztián Bányai,^1,4, Vito Martella,² Baoming Jiang,³ Béla Kocsis,⁴ Péter Kisfali,⁵ Béla Melegh,⁵ and György Szcs^1,4*

Regional Laboratory of Virology, Baranya County Institute of State Public Health Service, Szabadság út 7, H-7623 Pécs, Hungary,¹ Department of Animal Health and Well-Being, University of Bari, Sp Casamassima Km 3, 70010 Valenzano, Bari, Italy,² Gastroenteritis and Respiratory Viruses Laboratory Branch, Division of Viral Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, Georgia 30333,³ Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,⁴ Department of Medical Genetics and Child Development, Faculty of Medicine, University of Pécs, Szigeti út 12, H-7624 Pécs, Hungary⁵

Received 21 December 2007/ Accepted 28 March 2008

Group C rotaviruses have been recognized as a cause of acute gastroenteritis in humans, cattle, and swine, although the true epidemiologic and clinical importance of this virus in these hosts has not yet been fully established. A real-time PCR assay based on a broadly reactive primer pair was developed and used to quantitatively determine the viral load of group C rotaviruses in environmental samples. A total of 35 raw and 35 treated sewage samples collected at the same sampling time in four Hungarian sewage treatment plants during a survey in 2005 were tested for the presence of group C rotaviruses. The overall detection rates were 91% (32 of 35) for the influent and 57% (20 of 35) for the effluent samples. Molecular characterization of the amplified partial VP6 gene revealed the cocirculation of human and animal (i.e., bovine and porcine) strains that were easily distinguishable by melting curve analysis. Human strains yielded relatively high viral loads (mean, 1.2 x 10⁷; median, 6.9 x 10⁵ genome equivalents per liter influent sewage) and appeared to display seasonal activity over the study period, whereas animal strains appeared to circulate throughout the year at much lower average titers (bovine strains mean, 9.9 x 10⁴; median, 3.0 x 10⁴; porcine strains mean, 3.9 x 10⁴; median, 3.1 x 10⁴ genome equivalents per liter influent sewage). Our findings suggest that monitoring of communal sewage may provide a good surrogate for investigating the epidemiology and ecology of group C rotaviruses in humans and animals.

Published ahead of print on 4 April 2008.

E.M. and K.B. contributed equally to this work.