Assessment of human enteric viruses in cultured and wild bivalve molluscs
- M. Luz Vilariño
- Françoise S. Le Guyader
- David Polo
- Julien Schaeffer
- Joanna Kröl
- Jesús López Romalde
ISSN: 1618-1905
Year of publication: 2009
Volume: 12
Issue: 3
Pages: 145-151
Type: Article
More publications in: International microbiology: official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology
Abstract
Standard and real-time reverse transcription-PCR (rRT-PCR) procedures were used to monitor cultured and wild bivalve molluscs from the Ría de Vigo (NW Spain) for the main human enteric RNA viruses, specifically, norovirus (NoV), hepatitis Avirus (HAV), astrovirus (AsV), rotavirus (RT), enterovirus (EV), and Aichi virus (AiV). The results showed the presence of at least one enteric virus in 63.4% of the 41 samples analyzed. NoV GII was the most prevalent virus, detected in 53.7% of the samples, while NoV GI, AsV, EV, and RV were found at lower percentages (7.3, 12.2, 12.2, and 4.9%, respectively). In general, samples obtained in the wild were more frequently contaminated than those from cultured (70.6 vs. 58.3%) molluscs and were more readily contaminated with more than one virus. However, NoV GI was detected in similar amounts in cultured and wild samples (6.4 × 102 to 3.3 × 103 RNA copies per gram of digestive tissue) while the concentrations of NoV GII were higher in cultured (from 5.6 × 101 to 1.5 × 104 RNA copies per gram of digestive tissue) than in wild (from 1.3 × 102 to 3.4 × 104 RNA copies per gram of digestive tissue) samples. [Int Microbiol 2009; 12(3):145-151]