Human and animal enteric viral markers for tracking the sources of faecal pollution

Ahmed, Warish; Harwood, Valerie J.

doi:10.14321/waterpathogens.8

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Interestingly, intestinal fungi have not yet been targeted. A good overview of the most useful indicators and MST markers for which qPCR assays are available is provided in the online Global Water Pathogens Project (GWPP) book for bacterial (Harwood et al 2018 ) and viral indicators of faecal pollution (Ahmed and Harwood 2017 ) or in a recent review article (Li et al 2021a ). Many of these methods have been subjected to multiple laboratory performance assessments and shown to be highly reproducible when standardized protocols are used (Ebentier et al 2013 , Shanks et al 2016 ).…”

Section: Background Information On Genetic Targets and Methods: A His...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Have genetic targets for faecal pollution diagnostics and source tracking revolutionized water quality analysis yet?

Demeter

Linke

Reischer

et al. 2023

FEMS Microbiology Reviews

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The impacts on faecal pollution analysis using nucleic acid-based methods, such as PCR and sequencing, in health-related water quality research were assessed by rigorous literature analysis. A wide range of application areas and study designs has been identified since the first application more than 30 years ago (>1,100 publications). Given the consistency of methods and assessment types, we suggest defining this emerging part of science as a new discipline: genetic faecal pollution diagnostics (GFPD) in health-related microbial water quality analysis. Undoubtedly, GFPD has already revolutionised faecal pollution detection and microbial source tracking, the current core applications. GFPD is also expanding to many other research areas, including infection and health risk assessment, evaluation of microbial water treatment, and support of wastewater surveillance. In addition, storage of DNA extracts allows for biobanking, which opens up new perspectives. The tools of GFPD can be combined with cultivation-based standardised faecal indicator enumeration, pathogen detection, and various environmental data types, in an integrated data analysis approach. This comprehensive meta-analysis provides the scientific status quo of this field, including trend analyses and literature statistics, outlining identified application areas, and discussing the benefits and challenges of nucleic acid-based analysis in GFPD.

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Section: Background Information On Genetic Targets and Methods: A His...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Have genetic targets for faecal pollution diagnostics and source tracking revolutionized water quality analysis yet?

Demeter

Linke

Reischer

et al. 2023

FEMS Microbiology Reviews

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show abstract

“…Among pathogens, some human viruses have been proposed as MST markers of human faecal contamination. Human adenovirus and polyomavirus are generally present in sewage and show high water environmental persistence and significant host specificity (Ahmed and Harwood ). Values (Table ) range from undetectable to 10 6 GC 100 ml −1 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathogens, faecal indicators and human-specific microbial source-tracking markers in sewage

et al. 2019

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Summary The objective of this review is to assess the current state of knowledge of pathogens, general faecal indicators and human‐specific microbial source tracking markers in sewage. Most of the microbes present in sewage are from the microbiota of the human gut, including pathogens. Bacteria and viruses are the most abundant groups of microbes in the human gut microbiota. Most reports on this topic show that raw sewage microbiological profiles reflect the human gut microbiota. Human and animal faeces share many commensal microbes as well as pathogens. Faecal‐orally transmitted pathogens constitute a serious public health problem that can be minimized through sanitation. Assessing both the sanitation processes and the contribution of sewage to the faecal contamination of water bodies requires knowledge of the content of pathogens in sewage, microbes indicating general faecal contamination and microbes that are only present in human faecal remains, which are known as the human‐specific microbial source‐tracking (MST) markers. Detection of pathogens would be the ideal option for managing sanitation and determining the microbiological quality of waters contaminated by sewage; but at present, this is neither practical nor feasible in routine testing. Traditionally, faecal indicator bacteria have been used as surrogate indicators of general faecal residues. However, in many water management circumstances, it becomes necessary to detect both the origin of faecal contamination, for which MST is paramount, and live micro‐organisms, for which molecular methods are not suitable. The presence and concentrations of pathogens, general faecal indicators and human‐specific MST markers most frequently reported in different areas of the world are summarized in this review.

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“…Bacteria from the order Bacteroidales are the most targeted taxon in FST Boehm et al, 2013;Harwood et al, 2014;Ahmed et al, 2016b;Ahmed and Harwood, 2017). These bacteria are anaerobic and limited to feces, animal rumen, and other cavities of humans and most warm-blooded animals (Paster et al, 1994).…”

Section: Target Genes Of Fecal Source Tracking Assaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to high stability of viruses in the environment and their host specificity, viral markers are suitable candidates for tracking sources of fecal contamination of human and non-human origin (Noble and Fuhrman, 2001;Ley et al, 2002;Ahmed and Harwood, 2017). Hostassociated markers can be found in teschoviruses (Jiménez-Clavero et al, 2003), adenoviruses (de Motes et al, 2004Hundesa et al, 2006;Ahmed et al, 2010), polyomaviruses (Hundesa et al, 2006) and enteroviruses (Ley et al, 2002).…”

Section: Target Genes Of Fecal Source Tracking Assaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of molecular markers for identification of non-human fecal pollution sources

Zlender,

Rupnik

2023

Front. Microbiol.

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Identifying primary sources of fecal pollution is important for assessing public health risks and implementing effective remediation strategies. To date, one of the main molecular approaches for identifying sources of fecal pollution relies on detecting molecular markers within bacterial, viral, or mitochondrial nucleic acids, that are indicative of a particular host. With a primary focus on identifying fecal pollution originating from humans, the field of fecal source tracking often places less emphasis on livestock sources, frequently leaving the problem of wildlife fecal pollution unaddressed. In this review, we summarize 55 previously published and validated molecular assays and describe methods for the detection of molecular markers that are indicative of non-human hosts. They cover a range of 15 animal species/groups with a primary focus on domestic animals including cattle, pigs, dogs, and poultry. Among assays associated with wild animals, the majority are designed to detect bird feces, while the availability of assays for detecting feces of other wild animals is limited. Both domestic and wild animals can represent a zoonotic reservoir of human enteropathogens, emphasizing the importance of their role in public health. This review highlights the need to address the complexity of fecal contamination and to include a broader range of animal species into assay validation and marker identification.

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Human and animal enteric viral markers for tracking the sources of faecal pollution

Cited by 4 publications

References 38 publications

Have genetic targets for faecal pollution diagnostics and source tracking revolutionized water quality analysis yet?

Have genetic targets for faecal pollution diagnostics and source tracking revolutionized water quality analysis yet?

Pathogens, faecal indicators and human-specific microbial source-tracking markers in sewage

An overview of molecular markers for identification of non-human fecal pollution sources

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