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DOE OSTI · 1878019

Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater [Slides]

Urbatsch, Dana Deann
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Abstract

The monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 through individual testing is subject to inaccuracies. Wastewater biosurveillance has been used around the world to detect the presence of drugs, viruses, and other chemicals present in a population. Fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 implies that wastewater can be analyzed in order to detect varying levels of the virus within a given community. Pepper Mild Mottle Virus is present consistently in human fecal matter, and can be used to normalize the amount of SARS-CoV-2 detected. In this experiment, the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the wastewater sample was compared to the amount of PMMoV present. Wastewater samples were separated into three fractions: direct wastewater, a solid pellet, and filter paper extract. An RT-qPCR test was used on the extracted RNA from each fraction to detect the relative amount of SARS-CoV-2 and PMMoV copies in each sample. The amount of SARS-CoV-2 was successfully normalized to the amount of PMMoV.

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Urbatsch, Dana Deann. 2022-07-25. Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater [Slides]. https://doi.org/10.2172/1878019

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