 Surveillance of enteric viruses in environmental waters from Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina

VITALI FRANCO; FRYDMAN C; DUS SANTOS MARIA JOSE; MARINA MOZGOVOJ

Simposio; The 3rd International Joint Symposium on Agriculture and Food Security School of Agro-Industry Mae Fah Luang University; 2023

Introduction: Enteric viruses are excreted in the feces of infected individuals and are introduced intoenvironmental waters through the discharge of treated and untreated wastewater. Surveillance of entericviruses in surface waters can provide information regarding viral circulation in a community. The aim of thiswork was to detect Adenovirus (AdV), Rotavirus (RV), Norovirus GI (NoV GI), Norovirus GII (NoV GII), HepatitisA (HAV) and Hepatitis E (HEV) in stream waters from the Arroyo Soto, which is located in the northwest ofthe Metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and to genetically characterize the detected strains.Methods: A total of 45 samples were collected at five points along the stream located at HurlinghamCity, Buenos Aires, from January to July 2023. Samples were analyzed by real-time PCR for the detection ofenteric viruses, after a concentration step. Positive samples were subjected to end point PCR for subsequentsequencing.Results: Globally, the percentage of positive samples was 4 % for HEV, 40 % for RVA, 27 % for NoVGII, 2 % for NoV GI, 2 % for HAV and 84 % for AdV. 44 % of the samples were positive for at least two viruses.RVA showed a higher detection in winter months, while AdV was detected during the whole period. Afragment of HAV 5´UTR from the positive sample was sequenced and the phylogenetic analysis revealed thatthe detected strain belonged to genotype IA.Conclusion: Results shown demonstrate that water surveillance could help to identify circulatingstrains in a population complementing health care services to prevent potential viral outbreaks. Moreover,it reinforces the importance of environmental surveillance as a key tool for pollution control and human riskexp