Survivability, Partitioning, and Recovery of Enveloped Viruses in Untreated Municipal Wastewater

Abstract

Many of the devastating pandemics and outbreaks of the 20th and 21st centuries have involved enveloped viruses, including influenza, HIV, SARS, MERS, and Ebola. However, little is known about the presence and fate of enveloped viruses in municipal wastewater. Here, we compared the survival and partitioning behavior of two model enveloped viruses (MHV and ϕ6) and two nonenveloped bacteriophages (MS2 and T3) in raw wastewater samples. We showed that MHV and ϕ6 remained infective on the time scale of days. Up to 26% of the two enveloped viruses adsorbed to the solid fraction of wastewater compared to 6% of the two nonenveloped viruses. Based on this partitioning behavior, we assessed and optimized methods for recovering enveloped viruses from wastewater. Our optimized ultrafiltration method resulted in mean recoveries (±SD) of 25.1% (±3.6%) and 18.2% (±9.5%) for the enveloped MHV and ϕ6, respectively, and mean recoveries of 55.6% (±16.7%) and 85.5% (±24.5%) for the nonenveloped MS2 and T3, respectively. A maximum of 3.7% of MHV and 2% of MS2 could be recovered from the solids. These results shed light on the environmental fate of an important group of viruses and the presented methods will enable future research on enveloped viruses in water environments.

Aerosolization of Ebola Virus Surrogates in Wastewater Systems

“…45 A T90 value (i.e., time to reach 90% inactivation) of 121 hours MS2 in unpasteurized wastewater at 25 °C was reported in a previous study. 46 The decrease in Phi6 concentration in the converging sewer pipes model is larger compared to that in earlier studies on the persistence of Phi6 in wastewater and the inactivation of Ebola virus in sterilized wastewater. 19 The differe nce may be due to the effect of heat inactivation inside the sump pump, used for flow circulation in the sewer model, as Phi6 is believed to be more sensitive to higher temperature.…”

“…20 The finding that heat inactivation only applies to Phi6 is consistent with the general finding of greater susceptibility of enveloped viruses to inactivation. 46 The large difference in airborne concentrations of MS2 and Phi6, a factor of >100, in both the aeration basin and sewer model can be attributed to two causes. First, their different inactivation and absorption rates results in different final concentrations in the mixed liquor even though they were spiked at the same initial concentration.…”

Ammonia as an In Situ Sanitizer: Influence of Virus Genome Type on Inactivation

“…Consequently, Elving et al (99) showed that MS2 was more persistent than the enveloped dsRNA phage ⌽6 and the enveloped ssRNA influenza A virus during composting of manure at 35 to 55°C. Similarly, Ye et al determined that, independent of genome type, enveloped viruses (ssRNA murine hepatitis virus and dsRNA phage ⌽6) were inactivated at higher rates than naked viruses (MS2 and dsDNA phage T3) in wastewater (100). In contrast, Emmoth et al (17) did not observe a significant influence of the envelope among ssRNA virus inactivated in manure at 4 to 25°C.…”

Spread from the Sink to the Patient: In Situ Study Using Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)-Expressing Escherichia coli To Model Bacterial Dispersion from Hand-Washing Sink-Trap Reservoirs

“…Sink 1, on the other hand, was farthest away from the source (sink 5), and its P-trap had the greatest incline in the drain line connecting the sinks, which could perhaps contribute to the reasons there was no GFP-expressing E. coli colonization detected in it after 7 days. There has been more investigation about microbiologic dynamics of infectious viral particles such as those of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Ebola viruses through premise plumbing systems (34)(35)(36). However, the microbiology, sustainability, and dynamics might be very different, although the backflow and inoculation issues could have some parallels when comparing viruses to bacteria.…”