Can shellfish be used to monitor SARS-CoV-2 in the coastal environment?
| Type | Article | ||||||||||||
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| Date | 2021-07 | ||||||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||||||
| Author(s) | Desdouits Marion 1, Piquet Jean-Come1, Wacrenier Candice1, Le Mennec Cecile1, Parnaudeau Sylvain1, Jousse Sarah1, Rocq Sophie1, Bigault Lionel2, Contrant Maud2, Garry Pascal1, Chavanon Fabienne3, Gabellec Raoul4, Lamort Laure5, Lebrun Luc6, Le Gall Patrik7, Meteigner Claire11, Schmitt Anne4, Seugnet Jean-Luc8, Serais Ophelie9, Peltier Cécile10, Bressolette-Bodin Céline10, Blanchard Yannick2, Le Guyader Soizick1 |
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| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Ifremer, laboratoire de Microbiologie, SG2M/LSEM, BP 21105, 44311 Nantes, France 2 : ANSES, Génétique Virale et Biosécurité, Ploufragan, France 3 : Ifremer, Laboratoire Environnement Ressource Provence-Azur-Corse, la Seyne sur Mer, France 4 : Ifremer, Laboratoire Environnement Ressource Morbihan Pays de la Loire, Lorient, France 5 : Ifremer, Laboratoire Environnement Ressource Normandie, Port en Bessin, France 6 : Ifremer, Laboratoire Environnement Ressource Bretagne Occidentale, Concarneau, France 7 : Ifremer, Laboratoire Environnement Ressource Bretagne Nord, Dinard, France 8 : Ifremer, Laboratoire Environnement Ressource Pertuis-Charentais, la Tremblade, France 9 : Ifremer, Laboratoire Environnement Ressource Languedoc Roussillon, Sète, France 10 : Nantes Université, Centre de Recherche en Transplantation et Immunologie, UMR 1064, ITUN, 44000 Nantes, France 11 : Ifremer, Laboratoire Environnement Ressource Arcachon, Arcachon, France |
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| Source | Science Of The Total Environment (0048-9697) (Elsevier BV), 2021-07 , Vol. 778 , P. 146270 (11p.) | ||||||||||||
| DOI | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146270 | ||||||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 23 | ||||||||||||
| Keyword(s) | SARS-CoV-2, Coastal environment, Seawater, Shellfish, Detection method, Genomic detection | ||||||||||||
| Abstract | The emergence and worldwide spread of SARS-CoV-2 raises new concerns and challenges regarding possible environmental contamination by this virus through spillover of human sewage, where it has been detected. The coastal environment, under increasing anthropogenic pressure, is subjected to contamination by a large number of human viruses from sewage, most of them being non-enveloped viruses like norovirus. When reaching coastal waters, they can be bio-accumulated by filter-feeding shellfish species such as oysters. Methods to detect this viral contamination were set up for the detection of non-enveloped enteric viruses, and may need optimization to accommodate enveloped viruses like coronaviruses (CoV). Here, we aimed at assessing methods for the detection of CoV, including SARS-CoV-2, in the coastal environment and testing the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 can contaminate oysters, to monitor the contamination of French shores by SARS-CoV-2 using both seawater and shellfish. Using the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a CoV, as surrogate for SARS-CoV-2, and Tulane virus, as surrogate for non-enveloped viruses such as norovirus, we assessed and selected methods to detect CoV in seawater and shellfish. Seawater-based methods showed variable and low yields for PEDV. In shellfish, the current norm for norovirus detection was applicable to CoV detection. Both PEDV and heat-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 could contaminate oysters in laboratory settings, with a lower efficiency than a calicivirus used as control. Finally, we applied our methods to seawater and shellfish samples collected from April to August 2020 in France, where we could detect the presence of human norovirus, a marker of human fecal contamination, but not SARS-CoV-2. Together, our results validate methods for the detection of CoV in the coastal environment, including the use of shellfish as sentinels of the microbial quality of their environment, and suggest that SARS-CoV-2 did not contaminate the French shores during the summer season. |
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