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Relative Abundance of Human Bocaviruses in Urban Sewage in Greater Cairo, Egypt

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Abstract

Human bocavirus (HBoV) is predominantly found in the respiratory tract infections and in the stool of patients with gastroenteritis symptoms. However, data on the prevalence of HBoV genotypes in environmental samples are limited. Here we addressed the prevalence of HBoV in sewage collected from three different wastewater treatment plants in Egypt. HBoV-1, HBoV-2, and HBoV-3 were detected, whereas none of the samples were positive for HBoV-4. The median concentration of HBoV in influent samples was 8.5 × 103 GC/l for HBoV-1, 3.0 × 104 GC/l for HBoV-2, and 2.5 × 104 GC/l for HBoV-3. The concentration was reduced but not completely removed in the effluent samples. The median concentration in the outlet samples was 2.9 × 103 GC/l for HBoV-1, 4.1 × 103 GC/l for HBoV-2, and 2.1 × 103 GC/l for HBoV-3. Moreover, no seasonality pattern of HBoVs was found. The high incidence of HBoV in sewage samples provided an evidence of its circulation in the local population. Although the role of HBoV in respiratory or gastro-intestinal infections still remains to be fully elucidated, the risk of infection via contaminated water should be taken into consideration.

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Acknowledgement

This work was conducted within a short-term fellowship funded by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Virology Laboratory, Department of Water Pollution Research, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt

    Hazem Hamza & Ibrahim Ahmed Hamza

  2. Department of Hygiene, Social- and Environmental Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Hazem Hamza, Mats Leifels & Michael Wilhelm

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  1. Hazem Hamza
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Correspondence to Ibrahim Ahmed Hamza.

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Hamza, H., Leifels, M., Wilhelm, M. et al. Relative Abundance of Human Bocaviruses in Urban Sewage in Greater Cairo, Egypt. Food Environ Virol 9, 304–313 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-017-9287-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-017-9287-3

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