Enteric viruses in New Zealand drinking-water sources
Annual Conference
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Our aim was to determine whether human-pathogenic viruses are present in surface water used as the source of drinking-water. We regularly sampled two rivers over two years. Enteric viruses were concentrated using ultrafiltration and detected using PCR for adenovirus, norovirus, enterovirus, rotavirus, and hep atitis E virus (HEV).
Target viruses were detected in 97% (106/109) of samples, with 67% of samples positive for three or more viral types at one time. Adenovirus, norovirus and rotavirus were detected the most frequently, while HEV was detected the least but at least once in both rivers. There was an increase in the frequency of animal-norovirus and rotavirus over the lambing and calving period (July-October).
Our results suggest that New Zealand would benefit from assessing the ability of drinking-water treatment plants to remove a certain viral concentration from source water, and this assessment could be based on the viral concentration of adenovirus, norovirus and rotavirus.