학술논문
Wastewater surveillance monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and dynamics of transmission and community burden of COVID-19
Document Type
article
Author
Maria E. Hasing; Bonita E. Lee; Tiejun Gao; Qiaozhi Li; Yuanyuan Qiu; Erik Ellehoj; Tyson E. Graber; Meghan Fuzzen; Mark Servos; Chrystal Landgraff; Robert Delatolla; Graham Tipples; Nathan Zelyas; Deena Hinshaw; Rasha Maal-Bared; Christopher Sikora; Michael Parkins; Casey R. J. Hubert; Kevin Frankowski; Steve E. Hrudey; Xiaoli L. Pang
Source
Emerging Microbes and Infections, Vol 12, Iss 2 (2023)
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
22221751
2222-1751
2222-1751
Abstract
Wastewater-based surveillance is a valuable approach for monitoring COVID-19 at community level. Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) in wastewater has become increasingly relevant when clinical testing capacity and case-based surveillance are limited. In this study, we ascertained the turnover of six VOC in Alberta wastewater from May 2020 to May 2022. Wastewater samples from nine wastewater treatment plants across Alberta were analysed using VOC-specific RT-qPCR assays. The performance of the RT-qPCR assays in identifying VOC in wastewater was evaluated against next generation sequencing. The relative abundance of each VOC in wastewater was compared to positivity rate in COVID-19 testing. VOC-specific RT-qPCR assays performed comparatively well against next generation sequencing; concordance rates ranged from 89% to 98% for detection of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Omicron BA.1 and Omicron BA.2, with a slightly lower rate of 85% for Delta (p