Hi all…if you are like me you probably wonder why pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) is being suggested by authors of this just published paper as a viral indicator (surrogate) for fecal contamination in water (instead of enteric viruses, adenoviruses or noroviruses). Well, it turns out that viable pepper mild mottle virus has been isolated not only from peppers, but from processed pepper-based products such as hot sauce and different powdered spices and it has frequently been identified in different water sources, including drinking water, river water, coastal waters, and aquifers. It is an environmentally stable, non-enveloped, plant-pathogenic virus whose RNA has been detected in treated wastewaters. The high concentrations and incidence in feces (109 virions per gram of dry weight fecal matter) and sewage (1010 genome copies/L) suggested that it might be an appropriate viral indicator of fecal contamination in water. As it turns out, pepper mild mottle virus was detected in 94.7% of all samples! Assuming the presence of this virus is somewhat similar in Canadian waters this might be a good enteric virus surrogate.
Bill
Persistence of Viruses by qPCR Downstream of Three Effluent-Dominated Rivers in the Western United States
Hannah P. Sassi, Koiya D. Tuttle, Walter Q. Betancourt, Masaaki Kitajima, Charles P. Gerba
Food Environ Virol (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-018-9343-7
Abstract
“This study was designed to determine the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) signal persistence of viruses in three effluent-dominated streams. Samples were collected from the effluent outfall of three wastewater treatment plants in the Western United States and downstream at different locations. All samples were tested for the presence of pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), adenoviruses, norovirus GI and GII, Aichi virus, and enteroviruses using qPCR. PMMoV was detected most frequently in 54/57 (94.7%) samples, followed by adenoviruses which was detected in 21/57 (36.8%) samples. PMMoV was detected at all locations downstream and up to 32 km from the discharge point. This study demonstrated that the detection signal of PMMoV was able to persist in wastewater discharges to a greater degree than human enteric viruses in effluent-dominated rivers.”
