Enteric viruses represent a public health risk since they are involved in foodborne and waterborne outbreaks. The aim of this study was to investigate the circulation of select human enteric viruses — hepatitis A virus (HAV), noroviruses (NoVGI and NoVGII), adenovirus (AdV), rotavirus (RV), astrovirus (AsV), sapovirus (SaV) and aichivirus (AiV) – in wastewater and in environmental samples (groundwater, surface water and sediments) of Campania Region, southern Italy, with the goal of evaluating their circulation in the environment and to characterize the circulating strains by phylogenetic analysis. A total of 199 water and sediment samples were collected from rivers, dams, wells and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in all provinces of the Campania Region and analysed by real-time qPCR for the detection of viruses, after a concentration step with organic flocculation. This study provides information on the qualitative and quantitative spread of human enteric viruses in the environment and their potential health risk. In our samples all the viral families were detected, with different prevalence. Among the investigated viruses, RV was the most prevalent and concentrated virus in surface water and sediments, with AsV being prevalent and concentrated in wastewater. The prevalence of viral pathogens was not influenced by season for almost all enteric viruses, except for NoVGII in WWTPs. Within the WWTPs, a significant reduction in the average concentration levels was observed for all viral targets from the influent to the effluent except for the HAV and AiV. The results of our study confirmed the importance of environmental surveillance that can represent a key tool for pollution control and human risk exposure.

肠道病毒涉及食源性和水源性暴发，因此具有公共卫生风险。这项研究的目的是调查选定的人类肠道病毒的传播-甲型肝炎病毒（HAV），诺如病毒（NoVGI和NoVGII），腺病毒（AdV），轮状病毒（RV），星状病毒（AsV），沙波病毒（SaV）和AichiV（AiV）–在意大利南部坎帕尼亚地区的废水和环境样品（地下水，地表水和沉积物中）中，目的是评估其在环境中的循环并通过系统发育分析表征循环菌株。从坎帕尼亚大区所有省份的河流，水坝，水井和废水处理厂（WWTP）收集了总共199个水和沉积物样品，并通过实时定量PCR进行了分析，以检测病毒，经过有机絮凝浓缩步骤后。这项研究提供了有关人类肠道病毒在环境中的定性和定量传播及其潜在健康风险的信息。在我们的样本中，所有病毒家族都被检测到，流行程度不同。在所调查的病毒中，RV是地表水和沉积物中最普遍和最集中的病毒，其中AsV最普遍和最集中在废水中。除污水处理厂中的NoVGII外，几乎所有肠道病毒的病毒病原体流行率均不受季节的影响。在污水处理厂内，除HAV和AiV外，从进水到出水的所有病毒靶标的平均浓度水平均显着下降。