Reduction of Human Norovirus GI, GII, and Surrogates by Peracetic Acid and Monochloramine in Municipal Secondary Wastewater Effluent

Nathan Dunkin, Shihchi Weng, Caroline G. Coulter, Joseph G. Jacangelo, Kellogg J. Schwab

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

The objective of this study was to characterize human norovirus (hNoV) GI and GII reductions during disinfection by peracetic acid (PAA) and monochloramine in secondary wastewater (WW) and phosphate buffer (PB) as assessed by reverse transcription-qPCR (RT-qPCR). Infectivity and RT-qPCR reductions are also presented for surrogate viruses murine norovirus (MNV) and bacteriophage MS2 under identical experimental conditions to aid in interpretation of hNoV molecular data. In WW, RT-qPCR reductions were less than 0.5 log10 for all viruses at concentration-time (CT) values up to 450 mg-min/L except for hNoV GI, where 1 log10 reduction was observed at CT values of less than 50 mg-min/L for monochloramine and 200 mg-min/L for PAA. In PB, hNoV GI and MNV exhibited comparable resistance to PAA and monochloramine with CT values for 2 log10 RT-qPCR reduction between 300 and 360 mg-min/L. Less than 1 log10 reduction was observed for MS2 and hNoV GII in PB at CT values for both disinfectants up to 450 mg-min/L. Our results indicate that hNoVs exhibit genogroup dependent resistance and that disinfection practices targeting hNoV GII will result in equivalent or greater reductions for hNoV GI. These data provide valuable comparisons between hNoV and surrogate molecular signals that can begin the process of informing regulators and engineers on WW treatment plant design and operational practices necessary to inactivate hNoVs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)11918-11927
Number of pages10
JournalEnvironmental Science and Technology
Volume51
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 17 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • Environmental Chemistry

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