TY - JOUR
T1 - Wastewater surveillance for bacterial targets
T2 - current challenges and future goals
AU - Philo, Sarah E.
AU - De León, Kara B.
AU - Noble, Rachel T.
AU - Zhou, Nicolette A.
AU - Alghafri, Rashed
AU - Bar-Or, Itay
AU - Darling, Amanda
AU - Souza, Nishita D.
AU - Hachimi, Oumaima
AU - Kaya, Devrim
AU - Kim, Sooyeol
AU - Kuhn, Katrin Gaardbo
AU - Layton, Blythe A.
AU - Mansfeldt, Cresten
AU - Oceguera, Bethany
AU - Radniecki, Tyler S.
AU - Ram, Jeffrey L.
AU - Saunders, Lauren P.
AU - Shrestha, Abhilasha
AU - Stadler, Lauren B.
AU - Steele, Joshua A.
AU - Stevenson, Bradley S.
AU - Vogel, Jason R.
AU - Bibby, Kyle
AU - Boehm, Alexandria B.
AU - Halden, Rolf U.
AU - Vela, Jeseth Delgado
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2023 Philo et al.
PY - 2024/1/1
Y1 - 2024/1/1
N2 - Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) expanded rapidly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the public health emergency has ended, researchers and practitioners are looking to shift the focus of existing wastewater surveillance programs to other targets, including bacteria. Bacterial targets may pose some unique challenges for WBE applications. To explore the current state of the field, the National Science Foundation-funded Research Coordination Network (RCN) on Wastewater Based Epidemiology for SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats held a workshop in April 2023 to discuss the challenges and needs for wastewater bacterial surveillance. The targets and methods used in existing programs were diverse, with twelve different targets and nine different methods listed. Discussions during the workshop highlighted the challenges in adapting existing programs and identified research gaps in four key areas: choosing new targets, relating bacterial wastewater data to human disease incidence and prevalence, developing methods, and normalizing results. To help with these challenges and research gaps, the authors identified steps the larger community can take to improve bacteria wastewater surveillance. This includes developing data reporting standards and method optimization and validation for bacterial programs. Additionally, more work is needed to understand shedding patterns for potential bacterial targets to better relate wastewater data to human infections. Wastewater surveillance for bacteria can help provide insight into the underlying prevalence in communities, but much work is needed to establish these methods. IMPORTANCE Wastewater surveillance was a useful tool to elucidate the burden and spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic. Public health officials and researchers are interested in expanding these surveillance programs to include bacterial targets, but many questions remain. The NSF-funded Research Coordination Network for Wastewater Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats held a workshop to identify barriers and research gaps to implementing bacterial wastewater surveillance programs.
AB - Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) expanded rapidly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the public health emergency has ended, researchers and practitioners are looking to shift the focus of existing wastewater surveillance programs to other targets, including bacteria. Bacterial targets may pose some unique challenges for WBE applications. To explore the current state of the field, the National Science Foundation-funded Research Coordination Network (RCN) on Wastewater Based Epidemiology for SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats held a workshop in April 2023 to discuss the challenges and needs for wastewater bacterial surveillance. The targets and methods used in existing programs were diverse, with twelve different targets and nine different methods listed. Discussions during the workshop highlighted the challenges in adapting existing programs and identified research gaps in four key areas: choosing new targets, relating bacterial wastewater data to human disease incidence and prevalence, developing methods, and normalizing results. To help with these challenges and research gaps, the authors identified steps the larger community can take to improve bacteria wastewater surveillance. This includes developing data reporting standards and method optimization and validation for bacterial programs. Additionally, more work is needed to understand shedding patterns for potential bacterial targets to better relate wastewater data to human infections. Wastewater surveillance for bacteria can help provide insight into the underlying prevalence in communities, but much work is needed to establish these methods. IMPORTANCE Wastewater surveillance was a useful tool to elucidate the burden and spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic. Public health officials and researchers are interested in expanding these surveillance programs to include bacterial targets, but many questions remain. The NSF-funded Research Coordination Network for Wastewater Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Public Health Threats held a workshop to identify barriers and research gaps to implementing bacterial wastewater surveillance programs.
KW - bacteria
KW - wastewater surveillance
KW - wastewater-based epidemiology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183474042&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1128/aem.01428-23
DO - 10.1128/aem.01428-23
M3 - Article
C2 - 38099657
AN - SCOPUS:85183474042
SN - 0099-2240
VL - 90
JO - Applied and Environmental Microbiology
JF - Applied and Environmental Microbiology
IS - 1
ER -