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DETECTION OF INFECTIOUS ADENOVIRUS IN TERTIARY TREATED AND UV DISINFECTED WASTEWATER DURING A UV DISINFECTION PILOT STUDY
Citation:
Thompson, S., J. L. Jackson, M. SuvaCastillo, W. A. Yanko, AND F P. Williams Jr. DETECTION OF INFECTIOUS ADENOVIRUS IN TERTIARY TREATED AND UV DISINFECTED WASTEWATER DURING A UV DISINFECTION PILOT STUDY. Presented at WEFTEC 2000, 73rd Annual Conference & Exposition, Anaheim, CA, October 14-18, 2000.
Impact/Purpose:
Overarching Objectives and Links to Multi-Year Planning
This task directly supports the Drinking Water Research Program Multi-Year Plan's long term goal to "develop scientifically sound data and approaches to characterize and manage risks to human health posed by exposure to waterborne pathogens and chemicals" under GRPA Goal 2 (Clean and Safe Water). The overarching objective is to provide the Office of Water, Agency risk assessors and managers, academics, the scientific community, state regulators, water industry and industry spokes groups with exploratory occurrence and exposure data on human enteric viruses. These data will improve the quality of risk-based assessments and tools used by the Agency to set regulations, policies and priorities for protecting human health and allow the Agency to assure the public that the appropriate methods are being used to demonstrate that drinking water is safe from pathogenic agents.
Specific Subtask Objectives:
o Conduct an exploratory occurrence studies on emerging human waterborne pathogenic viruses and viruses on the Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) in water (Subtask A; to be completed by 9/05 in support of LTG 1 (due 2010)).
o Determine the relationship of bacterial virus indicators to human enteric virus occurrence in the above studies (Subtask A; to be completed by 9/05 in support of LTG 1 (due 2010)).
o Develop a non-invasive assay for measuring human exposure to viruses (Subtask B; to be completed by 9/05 in support of LTG 1 (due 2010)).
Description:
An infectious enteric adenovirus was isolated from urban wastewater receiving tertiary treatment and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. A pilot study was undertaken to investigate the efficacy of UV disinfection (low pressure, high intensity radiation) of total and fecal coliform bacteria, naturally occurring male-specific coliphage, seeded male-specific coliphage (MS20, naturally occurring enteirc viruses, and seeded poliovirus type 1 ((Lsc) in tertiary treated wastewater. The enteric viruses were concentrated from ca. 400 L of UV treated (20-70 mW-sec/cm2 doses) effluent using traditional adsorption elution methods and detected via a tissue culture cytopathic effects (CPE) assay. Sample concentrates were applied to monolayers of the CaCo-2 cell line and observed for a minimum of 14 days for CPE, followed by a minimum of 2 succeeding passages. Analysis of the UV treated samples for natural enteric viruses revealed the presence of a fastidious CPE-producing virus, later identified as an adenovirus by electron microscopic analysis. The adenovirus was isolated from a sample receiving a UV dose (ca. 60 mW-s/cm2) which reduced total and fecal coliform levels by ca. 5 Log10 units. Pilot unit data further showed that the same dose was capable of removing ca. 4 Log10 units of seeded MS2 coliphage. These results suggest that while UV disinfection may be effective at reducing levels of indicator bacteria, natural and seeded bacteriophage, and even seeded poliovirus, it may not provide equivalent reductions of some naturally occurring infectious enteric viruses such as adenovirus. Further research is need to determine appropriate doses for UV disinfection of enteric viruses in wastewater.