title: Human astroviruses in raw sewage samples in Hungary.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Routine procedures for monitoring viruses in water samples have not been drawn up for the water-microbiology screening panel. Enteric viruses, including astroviruses, are able to persist under environmental conditions and may cause public health problems by contaminating natural and drinking water resources. The aim of this study was to detect human astroviruses (HAstVs) from raw wastewater samples.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To obtain data on whether human astroviruses are shed in the environment, 35 raw sewage samples from 22 sewage plants in different regions of Baranya County, Hungary were tested for astrovirus using a polyethylene glycol method for concentration and a guanidinium thiocyanate-silica procedure for extraction of viral RNA. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with HAstV-specific primer pairs was used for amplification and the specificity of amplicons was confirmed by nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. Among the 35 raw sewage samples, 15 (43%) contained HAstV and by sequence analysis, 10 genotype HAstV-1 and one genotype HAstV-2 were identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The high detection rate of astroviruses we encountered in this study provide convincing evidence that HAstVs circulate at a relatively high frequency in the Hungarian population. No correlation between the standard indicators of faecal pollution and the presence of HAstVs was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study is the first report on detection of HAstV in sewage in Hungary and suggests that HAstV might be potent indicators of viral pollution in environmental specimens.
authors.affiliation: Regional Laboratory of Virology, Baranya County Institute of State Public Health Service, Pécs, Hungary. melegedina@freemail.hu
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meleg
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jakab
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kocsis
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bányai
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Melegh
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Szucs
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D001257:Mamastrovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012722:Sewage / Q000821:virology*; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral; D012722:Sewage