KWR in the news G.J. Medema - The key to tracking Coronavirus could be your poo - Sewage surveillance could help scientist predict new outbreaks

“Last week, Dutch scientists announced a first-of-its-kind method for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. The team, from KWR Water Research Institute, took samples of wastewater from six Dutch cities as well as Amsterdam’s airport in February 2020, weeks before the Netherlands announced its first case of Covid-19. They collected new samples and repeated the experiment in the first and third weeks of March.
After running the sewage samples through a centrifuge, the scientists looked for four genetic signatures of SARS-CoV-2. Three were from the nucleocapsid (N) gene, which builds proteins that make up the core of the virus. The remaining gene encodes the envelope (E) protein, which the virus uses to reproduce.”

(Citation: Farah, T. – KWR in the news G.J. Medema – The key to tracking Coronavirus could be your poo – Sewage surveillance could help scientist predict new outbreaks – www.onezero.medium.com (2020)6 April)