Citation:

Baldwin, T., A. C. Layton, L. D. McKay, S. Jones, V. Garrett, G. Johnson, AND G S. Fout. QUANTIFICATION OF ENTEROVIRUS AND HEPATITIS A VIRUSES IN WELLS AND SPRINGS IN EAST TENNESSEE USING REAL-TIME REVERSE TRANSCIPTION PCR. Presented at 4th International Groundwater Quality Conference, Ontario, Canada, July 19-22, 2004.

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:

This project involves development, validation testing and application of a fast, efficient method of quantitatively measuring occurrence and concentration of common human viral pathogens, enterovirus and hepatitis A virus, in ground water samples using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Development of the real time RT-PCR assays for enterovirus and hepatitis A virus are complete and they are being verified by comparison with cell culture assays. The validation and application phase of the project includes monitoring viral occurrence and concentration in samples from six community water supply wells or springs in karst settings in east Tennessee. The wells/springs were chosen on the basis of prior monitoring of fecal indicator bacteria and geochemical parameters (temperature, turbitity, DO, etc.), as well as the presence or absence of likely input sources of human sewage. The wells/springs used for sampling include two sites that have a relatively high likelihood of containing human pathogens, two that have a very low likelihood, and two intermediate sites. Sampling for viruses is scheduled to begin in January 2004 and these are expected to be the first measurements of viral occurrence in groundwater in the state of Tennessee.

Record Details: