Monitoring virus and Bacteroides in recreational waters from Arenales River

HECTOR ANTONIO CRISTÓBAL; VERÓNICA BEATRIZ RAJAL

Salta

Simposio; III LATIN AMERICAN SYMPOSIUM OF ENVIRONMENTAL VIROLOGY SALTA - ARGENTINA; 2016

INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES PARA LA INDUSTRIA QUIMICA (INIQUI) ; (CONICET - UNSA)

The presence of fecal pollution in environmental waters may represent a risk to human health all around the globe. It is known that standard bacterial indicators do not predict accurately the presence of pathogens and do not provide information regarding contamination source in waters. Therefore, virus and Bacteroides are promising as novel indicators. Microbial Source Tracking based on the detection of Bacteroides allows identifying the sources of fecal contamination in water. The objective of this study was to monitor adenovirus and Bacteroides as indicators of human pollution in recreational waters from Salta city. In the year 2013, four points across Arenales River were monitored from April to December. Water samples were concentrated by ultrafiltration, the nucleic acids (RNA/DNA) were extracted, and adenovirus and Bacteroides were detected by real-time PCR. Out of the 36 waters samples, 16 were positive for adenovirus, 22 for universal Bacteroides, 14 for human Bacteroides, and 5 for bovine Bacteroides. The results confirmed that there was sustained water pollution from human sources in the Arenales River. The river is highly impacted by human activities while crossing the city representing a risk for public health.