Viral and Bacterial Fecal Indicators in Untreated Wastewater Across the Contiguous United States Exhibit Geospatial Trends.

This study provides multiple insights to consider for the application of bacterial and viral indicators of sewage to surface water quality monitoring across the contiguous U.S. ranging from method selection considerations to future research directions. Systematic testing of a large collection of sewage samples confirms that crAssphage genetic markers occur at a higher concentration than key human-associated Bacteroides spp. concentrations on a national scale. Geospatial testing also suggests that some methods may be more suitable than others for widespread implementation. Nationwide characterization of indicator geospatial trends in untreated sewage represents an important step towards the validation of these newer methods for future water quality monitoring applications. In addition, the large paired measurement data set reported here also affords the opportunity to conduct a range of secondary analyses such as the generation of new or updated quantitative microbial risk assessment models used to estimate public health risk. PMID: 32060019 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research