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Efficiency of hepatitis A virus removal in six sewage treatment plants from central Tunisia

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

The efficiency of six Tunisian sewage treatment plants (STP) for the removal of hepatitis A virus (HAV) from wastewater was analysed in order to evaluate the potential risk for human health linked to reuse or discharge of treated wastewater into the environment. The STP utilize different biological wastewater treatments including primary treatment, which involves the physical removal of organic and inorganic solids, and secondary treatment that involves different processes, such as activated sludge or lagoon. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and conventional RT-PCR were used for the analysis of the 325 wastewater samples (163 raw and 162 treated) obtained. Results revealed highest contamination in west-central of Tunisia in raw wastewater with 62.96 % of samples positive for HAV and predominance during winter and autumn, whereas east-central region showed 50.62 % of positive samples with high prevalence from winter through summer. The quantitative analysis revealed a range between 4.29 × 101 and 1.24 × 105 RNA copies/mL in treated wastewater, showing clearly the inefficiency for total removal of HAV regardless of the treatment method used. The vast majority of HAV sequences belonged to the sub-genotype IA, except one that was assigned to sub-genotype IB.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by Grant 10MMA200010PR and GRC 2014/007 from the Xunta de Galicia (Spain).The authors thank the workers of the National Office of Sanitation (ONAS) of Tunisia for their help to get the wastewater samples and to provide the environmental data. Author IO thanks the ERASMUS Mundus (EMMAG) programme for a research fellowship.

Compliance with ethical standards

The authors declare that accepted principles of ethical and professional conduct have been followed.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Author notes

  1. Carmen F. Manso

    Present address: Public Health England, London, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Maladies Transmissibles et Substances Biologiquement Actives LR99ES27, Faculté de Pharmacie de Monastir, Université de Monastir, Avenue Avicenne, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia

    Imen Ouardani & Mahjoub Aouni

  2. Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología, CIBUS-Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Imen Ouardani, Carmen F. Manso & Jesús L. Romalde

Authors
  1. Imen Ouardani
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  2. Carmen F. Manso
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  3. Mahjoub Aouni
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  4. Jesús L. Romalde
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Correspondence to Jesús L. Romalde.

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Ouardani, I., Manso, C.F., Aouni, M. et al. Efficiency of hepatitis A virus removal in six sewage treatment plants from central Tunisia. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 10759–10769 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6902-9

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