Despite substantial advances in knowledge and understanding about the Zika virus (ZIKV), limitations in surveillance for this mainly asymptomatic infection constrain attempts to characterize the epidemiological distribution of the virus. Monitoring of fecal waste streams including sewage offers opportunities to track the spread of arboviruses such as ZIKV, known to be present in fecal waste and urine. To demonstrate the feasibility of ZIKV RNA detection in sewage, we examined viral RNA decay in sewage from a local wastewater treatment plant. We added ZIKV (MEX 1-44) to unpasteurized sewage and stored the samples at 4, 25, or 35 °C for one month. We extracted nucleic acids from the mixture using a QiaAmp Minelute Virus Spin Kit and measured ZIKV RNA using a TaqPath Zika Virus Kit. We found no appreciable decline in ZIKV RNA detection at 4 °C during the month. We estimate that 90% decay of detectable ZIKV RNA occurred after 21 days at 25 °C and after 8.5 days at 35 °C. Our preliminary work suggests ZIKV RNA can remain detectable in sewage over a range of temperatures and that sewage provides a cost-effective, community diagnostic tool that deserves further investigation as a novel epidemiologic surveillance approach.

中文翻译：

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寨卡病毒 RNA 在污水中的持久性

尽管对寨卡病毒 (ZIKV) 的认识和理解取得了重大进展，但对这种主要无症状感染的监测存在局限性，限制了对该病毒流行病学分布特征进行表征的尝试。监测包括污水在内的粪便废物流提供了追踪已知存在于粪便和尿液中的 ZIKV 等虫媒病毒传播的机会。为了证明在污水中检测 ZIKV RNA 的可行性，我们检查了当地污水处理厂污水中的病毒 RNA 衰变。我们将 ZIKV (MEX 1-44) 添加到未经巴氏消毒的污水中，并将样品在 4、25 或 35 °C 下储存一个月。我们使用 QiaAmp Minelute 病毒旋转试剂盒从混合物中提取核酸，并使用 TaqPath 寨卡病毒试剂盒测量 ZIKV RNA。我们发现在 4 °C 的月内 ZIKV RNA 检测没有明显下降。我们估计可检测到的 ZIKV RNA 在 25 °C 下 21 天和 35 °C 下 8.5 天后发生 90% 的衰变。我们的初步工作表明，ZIKV RNA 在一定温度范围内仍可在污水中检测到，并且污水提供了一种具有成本效益的社区诊断工具，值得作为一种新型流行病学监测方法进行进一步研究。