Saffold virus as a newly discovered virus, which seems to be related to acute gastroenteritis as with other enteric viruses and to human airway diseases in children belongs to Cardiovirus genus in picornaviridae family with 11 genotypes. Saffold virus initially was detected in America from infant stool sample. Saffold virus has also been detected in environmental water samples. Until now, two reports have demonstrated that sewage water sources are contaminated with Saffold viruses. Molecular detection of Saffold virus mostly depended on reverse transcription PCR methods and RT-qPCR, which had targeted 5′UTR region of the viral genome. The present study aims to evaluate the molecular detection and quantity of Saffold virus in sewage water and river water specimens by RT-qPCR assay in Karaj, Iran. Fifty samples collected from environmental waters containing treated and untreated sewage water and river water samples were included in this study. After viral RNA extraction, the Real-time PCR was developed to amplify the 5′UTR sequence of Saffold virus genome and viral load was assessed. Out of the 50 samples tested (consisting 28 river water samples and 22 sewage water samples), the Saffold virus genomic RNA was identified in 10/28 (35.7%) of river water samples and in 4/12 (33.3%) of treated and 4/10 (40%) of untreated sewage samples. The maximum viral load was 6.8 × 10⁶ copies/l in untreated sewage water sample in December, and the lower viral load was 1.2 × 10⁶ copies/l related to treated sewage water taken in October. Our results for the first time indicate that Saffold virus has apparently been circulating among Iranian peoples. Also, the viral prevalence of Saffold virus in each of the three sets of tested samples was within moderate to high in range.

中文翻译：

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伊朗卡拉伊的污水和河水样本中首次出现了Saffold病毒。

Saffold病毒是一种新发现的病毒，似乎与其他肠病毒一样与急性肠胃炎有关，并且与儿童的人类气道疾病有关，属于Picornaviridae的心血管病毒属。有11个基因型的家庭。最初在美国从婴儿粪便样本中检测到Saffold病毒。在环境水样中也发现了Saffold病毒。到目前为止，有两个报告表明污水源已被Saffold病毒污染。Saffold病毒的分子检测主要依靠逆转录PCR方法和RT-qPCR，它们靶向病毒基因组的5'UTR区。本研究旨在通过RT-qPCR分析法评估伊朗卡拉伊市污水和河水标本中Saffold病毒的分子检测和数量。本研究包括从包含处理过的和未经处理的污水以及河水的环境水中收集的五十份样品。病毒RNA提取后，开发了实时荧光定量PCR以扩增Saffold病毒基因组的5'UTR序列，并评估了病毒载量。在测试的50个样品中（包括28个河水样品和22个污水水样品），在10/28（35.7％）的河水样品和4/12（33.3％）的处理过的水样品中鉴定出Saffold病毒基因组RNA。未处理污水样本的4/10（40％）。最大病毒载量为6.8×10¹²月份未经处理的污水样本中有⁶份/升，与10月份处理过的污水有关的较低病毒载量为1.2×10 ⁶份/升。我们的结果首次表明，Saffold病毒显然已经在伊朗人民中传播。同样，三套测试样品中的每一种中，Saffold病毒的病毒感染率都在中等到高范围内。