Detection of Pathogen Sequences in Bioaerosols of Wastewater

DAVID ALBURTY, Namrita Dhillon, James Brayer, Hugh Olsen, Miten Jain, Norman Kado, InnovaPrep LLC

     Abstract Number: 315
     Working Group: Aerosol Science of Infectious Diseases: What We Have Learned and Still Need to Know about Transmission, Prevention, and the One Health Concept

Abstract
The way Americans think about public health has changed over the last century. Validation of the germ theory of disease, coupled with development of antibiotic drugs and vaccines have gradually displaced the social/behavioral strategies for public health that were prevalent in the 1800s. The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has reinforced the importance of environmental monitoring and social factors for public health by highlighting the critical importance of SARS-CoV-2 aerosol transmission and use of wastewater epidemiology for prevention of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. The environmental monitoring community continues to develop improved integrated tools for use in both aerosol pathogen detection and wastewater-based epidemiology. One such tool is presented here in which simultaneous wastewater and aerosol monitoring were conducted at an on-premise university wastewater treatment plant. Samples were analyzed using nanopore sequencing, and results presented here show the utility of sequencing for monitoring any pathogen (viral, bacterial, or fungal) in sewershed populations, and by extension, environmental aerosol monitoring near contaminated surface waters.