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Quantification of human adenovirus in irrigation water-soil-crop continuum: are consumers of wastewater-irrigated vegetables at risk?

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Abstract

Because of health concerns regarding the presence of enteric viruses in wastewater effluents, this study was designed to investigate the occurrence of human adenovirus (HAdV) in the irrigation water-soil-crop continuum. Viral particles were extracted from wastewater and wastewater- or water-irrigated soil and crop samples and analyzed using real-time PCR. Concentration of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) were also determined. Quantitative microbial risk assessment was performed to determine the HAdV illness risk associated with the consumption of wastewater-irrigated vegetables. HAdV-F was detected in 74% of wastewater effluent samples with a mean concentration of 38 Genomic Copy (GC)/mL. HAdV was also detected in wastewater-irrigated soil (2 × 102 GC/g) and crop (< 10 GC/g) samples, with no statistically significant difference in concentrations between wastewater- and freshwater-irrigated samples. The results showed no correlation between concentrations of FIB and HAdV in the analyzed samples. Mean probability of illness risk from consumption of wastewater-irrigated vegetables was 4 × 10−1 per person per year (pppy) which was about two orders of magnitude higher than the proposed value by WHO (10−3 pppy) for safe reuse of wastewater. This finding suggests that the wastewater reuse for irrigation of vegetables eaten raw could pose a threat to human health with respect to the risk of viral illness, signifying stricter management of wastewater reuse. However, because of uncertainties in the QMRA model, particularly the ratio of infectious to non-infectious virus particles, more data is required to validate the predicted risk. This information is especially important in arid and semi-arid regions where high temperatures, UV radiation intensity, and desiccation can efficiently inactivate microorganisms in the environment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the WWTPs managers for all the information and help provided during the field experiments and sampling.

Funding

This work was supported by Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) (Grant No. 97001735). We also acknowledge the support of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 397801).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Sahar Gholipour, Mona Hosseini & Mahnaz Nikaeen

  2. Environment Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-Communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Mahnaz Nikaeen

  3. Center for Water Quality Research (CWQR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mahdi Hadi

  4. Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Mahdieh Sarmadi

  5. Molecular Microbiology Research Center (MMRC), Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

    Horieh Saderi

  6. Department of Statistics & Epidemiology, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Akbar Hassanzadeh

Authors
  1. Sahar Gholipour
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  2. Mona Hosseini
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  3. Mahnaz Nikaeen
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  4. Mahdi Hadi
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  5. Mahdieh Sarmadi
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  6. Horieh Saderi
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  7. Akbar Hassanzadeh
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Contributions

Sahar Gholipour: Methodology, investigation. Mahnaz Nikaeen: Conceptualization, supervision, writing. Mona Hosseini and Mahdieh Sarmadi: Investigation. Horieh Saderi: Methodology, investigation. Mahdi Hadi and Akbar Hassanzadeh: Software, formal analysis.

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Correspondence to Mahnaz Nikaeen.

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Gholipour, S., Hosseini, M., Nikaeen, M. et al. Quantification of human adenovirus in irrigation water-soil-crop continuum: are consumers of wastewater-irrigated vegetables at risk?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 54561–54570 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19588-y

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