Assessment of human adenovirus removal by qPCR in an advanced water reclamation plant in Georgia, USA.

Aims To assess human adenoviruses ( HAd Vs) removal in an advanced wastewater treatment facility and compare two parallel tertiary treatment methods for the removal of HAd Vs. Methods and Results Tangential flow ultrafiltration was used to concentrate the water samples, and HAd Vs were precipitated by polyethylene glycol. HAd Vs were detected only by Taq Man real-time PCR, and HAd V genotype was determined by DNA sequence. HAd Vs were detected in 100% of primary clarification influent, secondary clarification effluent and granular media ( GM) filtration effluent samples but only in 31·2% of membrane filtration ( MF) effluent and 41·7% of final effluent ( FE) samples, respectively. The average HAd Vs loads were significantly reduced along the treatments but HAd Vs were still present in FE. Comparison of two parallel treatments ( GM vs MF) showed that MF was technically superior to GM for the removal of HAd Vs. Conclusions These findings indicate that adenoviruses are not completely removed by treatment processes. MF is a better treatment for removal of adenoviruses than GM filtration. Because only qPCR was used, the results only indicate the removal of adenovirus DNA and not the infectivity of viruses. Significance and Impact of the Study Presence of HAd Vs in FE by qPCR suggests a potential public health risk from exposure to the treated wastewater and using the FE for recreational or water reuse purposes should be cautious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]