Town scale response of water viral communities to town source surface water contamination with hydrochemical parameters

¹ School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University, Kenya
² School of Biosciences, Department of Microbiology, Brewing and Biotechnology, University of Nottingham, UK

^* Corresponding author: Michael.Opere@nottingham.ac.uk

Abstract

This study aims to explore the relationship between human enteric viruses found in town-scale surface water sources and certain chemical contaminants present in the water. From October 2010 to April 2012, water samples were collected and analyzed using a combination of biophysical and molecular techniques to detect the presence of human adenoviruses (HAdV) and human enteroviruses (HEV) as well as chemical parameters as predictors for virus survival. The concentrations of 12 chemical contaminants were found to be within WHO-recommended limits. The study found positive and negative associations between viral genome detection and four out of the 12 metal and nonmetal analytes. Specifically, there was a correlation between Cd and HAdV genome detection (rho = 0.146, p = 0.032) and between Pb and Fe with HEV (rho = 0.156, p = 0.022) and (rho = 0.148, p = 0.029), respectively. For nonmetals, phosphates were slightly negatively correlated to HEV (rho = 0.174, p = 0.010). The results of the study did not provide support for the hypothesis of an association between the presence of human enteric viruses and the levels of twelve chemical contaminants.