Detection of Saffold virus as a New Emerging Picornavirus in Environmental Waters

Introduction and Objectives: Saffold virus as a newly discovered virus, which seems to be related to acute gastroenteritis as with other enteric viruses and to human airway diseases in children belongs to Cardiovirus genus in picornaviridae family with 11 genotypes. Saffold virus initially was detected in America from infant stool sample. Saffold virus has also been detected in environmental water samples. Objectives: Until now, two reports have demonstrated that sewage water sources are contaminated with Saffold viruses. Molecular detection of Saffold virus mostly depended on reverse transcription-PCR methods and RT-qPCR, which had targeted 5´UTR region of the viral genome. The present study aims to evaluate the molecular detection of Saffold virus in sewage water and river water specimens by RT-qPCR assay in Karaj, Iran. Materials and Methods: 50 samples collected from environmental waters containing treated and untreated sewage water and river water samples were included in this study. After viral RNA extraction, the Real-time PCR was developed to amplify the 5´UTR sequence of Saffold virus genome and viral load was assessed. Results: Out of 50 samples tested (consisting 28 river water samples and 22 sewage water samples), the Saffold virus genomic RNA was identified in 10/28 (35.7%) of river water samples and in 4/12 (33.3%) of treated and 4/10 (40%) of untreated sewage samples. Discussion: Our results for the first time indicate that Saffold virus has apparently been circulating among Iranian peoples. Also, the viral load of Saffold virus in each of tested samples was within moderate to high in range.

کلیدواژه ها:

Saffold virus ، Sewage Water ، River Water ، Real-time PCR