Enteric viruses in New Zealand drinking-water sources

摘要

This study determined whether human pathogenic viruses are present in two New Zealandnsurface waters that are used as drinking-water sources. Enteric viruses were concentrated usingnhollow-fibre ultrafiltration and detected using PCR for adenovirus (AdV), and reverse transcriptionnPCR for norovirus (NoV) genogroups I-III, enterovirus, rotavirus (RoV) and hepatitis E virus (HEV).nTarget viruses were detected in 106/109 (97%) samples, with 67/109 (61%) samples positive fornthree or more viral types at any one time. AdV, NoV and RoV were detected the most frequently,nand HEV the least frequently. Human NoV was not usually associated with animal NoV. Our resultsnsuggest that New Zealand would be well served by assessing the ability of drinking-waterntreatment plants to remove viruses from the source waters, and that this assessment could benbased on the viral concentration of AdV-NoV-RoV. The long-term aim of our work is to use thisninformation to estimate the risk of waterborne viral infection.