title: Monitoring and evaluation of infectious rotaviruses in various wastewater effluents and receiving waters revealed correlation and seasonal pattern of occurrences.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sewage systems are important nodes to monitor enteric pathogens transmitted via water. The aim of this study was to assess the presence of rotaviruses in effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and receiving streams in Beijing, China, to evaluate the reductions of rotaviruses in WWTPs and to provide viral fate and transport data for further epidemiological studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two PCR-based methods, including an RT-qPCR and another quantitative RT-PCR (ICC-RT-qPCR), which was integrated with cell culturing, were applied to conduct a 1-year monitoring of infectious rotaviruses and viral genes in effluents from three WWTPs and the receiving waters in Beijing, China. The ICC-RT-qPCR was able to detect more positive samples than RT-qPCR, showing positive results for 67% of primary effluents, 47% of secondary effluents and 14% of tertiary effluents, in comparison with 44, 22 and 6% by RT-qPCR, respectively. Seasonal variations of rotaviruses were observed in all effluents with higher occurrences in winter than in summer, which correlated well with the seasonal pattern of rotaviruses in the river receiving wastewater effluents. The reduction efficiencies by different treatment processes were assessed. Secondary treatments can remove most of infectious rotaviruses in primary sewage, with annual average reduction values of 2·08 ± 0·63, 2·83 ± 0·49 and 2·00 ± 1·10 log(10) for the three WWTPs, respectively. Tertiary treatments were able to further remove infectious rotaviruses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed a year-round distribution of rotaviruses in three WWTPs in Beijing and provided important information regarding the transport and susceptibility of rotaviruses to different levels of wastewater treatment processes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study, for the first time, revealed the whole year prevalence and reductions of rotaviruses in WWTPs and the corresponding receiving waters in China, and demonstrated the impact of wastewater discharge on the potential spreading of infectious rotaviruses and public health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: A Z
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: S-Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: H-C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005814:Genes, Viral; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D045483:Rivers / Q000821:virology; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012621:Seasons; D012722:Sewage / Q000032:analysis / Q000821:virology*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage; D014873:Water Pollutants