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. 2020 May 5;179:115907. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.115907

Table 1.

Description of the reviewed studies with attention focused on coronavirus and/or surrogates (papers are listed in chronological order of publication).

Author and date of publication Type of study Type of CoV or surrogate a Aim of the study Study design
d Type of water sample (n° of samples) Virus concentration method Virus detection method b
Derbyshire and Brown (1978) Field Coronavirus growing on primary cell cultures Virological characterization of environmental matrices impacted by livestock 2-L Cattle and pig slurry (n° 56) Different virus concentration methods according to matrix type Primary cell cultures of PK and EBK cells
20-L Runoff, surface waters and groundwaters (n° 102)
Duan et al. (2003) In vitro SARS-CoV strain P9 Survival at room temperature in water and different surfaces (9 samplings over 120 h period assay) 300-μL sterilized water spiked with SARS-CoV to a final quantity of 106 TCID50 NA Infective assay on cell line Vero-E6
Wang et al. (2005b) In vitro SARS-CoV 1. Survival assay in various water matrices at 4 °C and 20 °C (9 samplings over 14 days period assay) 100-ml Different water samples spiked with SARS-CoV to a final quantity of 105 TCID50/ml:
  • -

    Hospital wastewaters (assigned to receive SARS patients);

  • -

    Domestic sewages;

  • -

    Tap water;

  • -

    Phosphate buffer saline (PBS)

NA Infectivity assay onto Vero E6 cell line and RT-PCR
  • -

    SARS-CoV strain BJ01

  • -

    Phage f2

2. Disinfection assay in wastewaters using sodium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide 100-ml Domestic sewages spiked with SARS-CoV and phage f2 to a final quantity 101.75 TCID50/ml and 1.1 × 105 PFU/L, respectively NA Infectivity assay onto Vero E6 cell line
Wang et al. (2005c) In vitro
  • -

    SARS-CoV

  • -

    Phage f2

Recovery efficiency of virus concentration methods based on electropositive filter media particle 100-ml Hospital sewage samples spiked with SARS-CoV and phage f2 to a final quantity of 102–103 TCID50/ml for both NA Infectivity assay onto Vero E6 cell line
Field
  • SARS-CoV

To investigate potential fecal-oral transmission of SARS-CoV 2.5-L Hospital sewage before disinfection (n° 5) Electropositive filters Both infectivity assay onto Vero E6 cell line and RT-PCR
25-L Hospital sewage after disinfection (n° 5)
Casanova et al. (2009) In vitro
  • -

    TGEV

  • -

    MHV

Survival assay in various water matrices at 4 °C and 23–25 °C (6 samplings over 49 days period assay) 45-ml Different water samples spiked with TGEV and MHV at a final quantity ∼105 MPN/ml and ∼107 MPN/ml, respectively:
  • -

    Reagent-grade water obtained from tap waters;

  • -

    Lake waters obtained from a drinking water source;

  • -

    Pasteurized settled sewage obtained from wastewater reclamation facility

NA Infective assay on ST cell cultures for TGEV and DBT cell cultures for MHV.
Gundy et al. (2009) In vitro
  • -

    HCoV strain 229E

  • -

    FIPV

Survival assay in various matrices at 23 °C and only for filtered tap water the assay was carried out also at 4 °C (6 samplings over 21 days period assay) 30-ml Different water samples spiked with HCoV and FIPV at a final quantity of 105 TCID50/ml for both:
  • -

    Tap waters (unfiltered and filtered);

  • -

    Wastewaters (primary and secondary effluents)

NA Infectivity assay on MRC-5 cell line for HCoV and CRFK cell line for FIPV
Fan et al. (2010) In vitro MHV strain A59 Detection efficiency of a methodology based on spectroscopy 1-ml Deionized water samples spiked with MHV at a final quantity of 106-107 PFU/ml NA Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) followed by multivariate statistical analyses for the interpretation of SERS spectral data (specific for each virus strain)
Schwarte et al. (2011) Field Bovine CoV To evaluate the effects of grazing management on sediment, phosphorus and pathogen loading Not specified Simulated runoff (n° 360) and cow feces (n° 90) Not specified RT-qPCR
Bibby et al. (2011) Field Human CoV To develop an approach for describing the diversity of human pathogenic viruses in an environmentally isolated viral metagenome 1-L Treated sewage sludge (Class B biosolid) Sample concentration according to standardized US procedure for virus concentration in sludge Shotgun sequencing techniques
Bibby and Peccia (2013) Field Human CoV To describe the human virus diversity in wastewater sample, and to understand infectious risks associated with land application 250-ml Untreated sewage sludge (n° 5) and treated sewage sludge (n° 5) Sample concentration according to procedure described in literature Shotgun sequencing techniques
Abd-Elmaksoud et al., 2014 In vitro Bovine CoV Recovery efficiency using glass wool filter as technique for water samples concentration. The different turbidity is used to simulate agricultural runoff 20-L Tap water spiked with bovine CoV at a final concentration of 250 GC/L, and added with different quantity of dried agricultural soil to produce three different turbidity level Glass wool filtration RT-qPCR
Corsi et al. (2014) Field Bovine CoV To examine the occurrence, hydrologic variability, and seasonal variability of human and bovine viruses in surface water 20-L River waters impacted by rural or urban runoff (n° 63) Automatic sampling procedure and concentration based on prefiltration and glass wool filtration. RT-qPCR
Casanova and Weaver (2015) In vitro Phage φ6 Survival assay at 22 and 30 °C (10 samplings over 10 days period assay) 45-ml Pasteurized raw sewage spiked with φ6 at a final concentration of ∼107 PFU/ml NA Plaque assay
Ye et al. (2016) In vitro
  • -

    MHV strain A59

  • -

    Phage φ6

  • 1.

    Recovery efficiency using an optimized ultrafiltration method on MHV

  • 2.

    Survival assay at 10 °C and 25 °C (7 samplings over 50 h period assay)

30-ml Pasteurized and unpasteurized raw sewage spiked with MHV and φ6 at a final concentration of 3 × 104 PFU/ml and 5 × 105 PFU/ml, respectively NA
  • -

    Infectivity assay for MHV based on cell line DBT

  • -

    Plaque assay for phage φ6

Christensen and Myrmel (2018) In vitro Bovine CoV Removal efficiency of coagulation-filtration system at bench scale and using three different coagulant (zirconium, chitosan and polyaluminium chloride). 400-ml Wastewaters spiked with bovine CoV at a final concentration of 104 PCRU/ml Centrifugation and filtration steps Both infectivity assay based on HRT-18G and RT-qPCR
Blanco et al. (2019) In vitro TGEV strain PUR46-MAD Recovery efficiency of an optimized methodology for virus concentration, based on glass wool filtration 50-L Surface waters spiked with TGEV at a final concentration of 5.7 × 106 TCID50/L Glass wool filtration Infectivity assay based on swine testis (ST) cell line
Field Wild-type alpha/beta CoV To verify the efficiency of the optimized procedure in detecting viruses (HAV and coronavirus) in natural environment 20-L Surface waters (n° 21) Glass wool concentration with an optimization set up in the in vitro study using TEGV Semi-nested RT-PCR for wild-type alpha/beta CoV and sequencing
Ahmed et al. (2020) Filed SARS-CoV-2 - To monitor SARS-CoV-2 in a pumping station and WWTPs, after first COVID-19 cases in Australia
- To estimate COVID-19 prevalence in the study area from SARS-CoV-2 data in wastewaters (Wastewater-based epidemiology)
100-200-ml Raw sewages (n° 9). Automatic 24h sampling procedure and concentration based on different methods:
- Electronegative membranes;
- Ultrafiltration (cut-off 10 kDa)
RT-qPCR and sequencing
Wang et al. (2020) Field SARS-CoV-2 To monitor SARS-CoV-2 in a hospital setting for COVID-19 patients (surface, sewage, personal protective equipment) Not specified Wastewater at different step of the treatment in a disinfection pool: untreated (n° 3), partially treated (n° 1), treated (n° 1). Not specified RT-qPCR and infectivity assay onto Vero E6 cell line
Medema et al. (2020) (pre-print on medRxiv ∗) Field SARS-CoV 2 To monitor SARS-CoV-2 in WWTP from cities and Schiphol Airport, before and after first COVID-19 cases in The Netherlands 250-ml Raw sewages (n° 24) Automatic 24h sampling procedure and concentration by ultrafiltration (cut-off 100 kDa) RT-PCR
Nemudryi et al. (2020) (pre-print on medRxiv ) Field SARS-CoV-2 To monitor SARS-CoV-2 in municipal wastewaters, after first COVID-19 cases in USA (Montana)
To determine the phylogenetic origin of SARS-CoV-2
500-ml Raw sewages (n° 7 in triplicate) Two different sampling strategy (manual and automatic 24h samplings) and concentration by ultrafiltration (cut-off 10 kDa) RT-qPCR and sequencing
Wu et al. (2020) (pre-print on medRxiv ) Field SARS-CoV 2
  • -

    To monitor SARS-CoV-2 in urban WWTP, before and after first COVID-19 cases in USA (Massachusetts);

  • -

    To evaluate the stability of SARS-CoV-2 at 4 °C;

  • -

    To estimate COVID-19 prevalence in the study area from SARS-CoV-2 data in wastewaters

Not specified Raw sewages (n° 14) Automatic 24h sampling procedure, filtration on 0.2 μm membrane and centrifugation with polyethylene glycol 8000 RT-qPCR and sequencing
Wurtzer et al. (2020) (pre-print on medRxiv ) Field SARS-CoV-2 To monitor SARS-CoV-2 in urban WWTP after first COVID-19 cases in France 11-ml Wastewater samples both raw (n° 23) and treated (n° 8) Ultracentrifugation (details not provided) RT-qPCR

∗ Pre-prints means preliminary reports that have not been peer-reviewed and retrieved from medRxiv database.

a

FIPV = Feline Infectious Peritonitis Virus; HCoV = Human coronavirus; MHV = Murine hepatitis virus; NA = not applicable; TGEV = Transmissible gastroenteritis virus.

b

CRFK = Crandell Reese feline kidney; DBT = delayed brain tumor; EBK = embryonic bovine kidney; HRT = human rectal tumor; MRC-5 are fetal human lung fibroblast; PK = pig kidney; ST = swine testicular.