Shellfish as Potential Indicators of Water Quality From nine of the beaches where water samples were obtained, marine bivalves Isognomon spp

tively high occurrence of enterovirus in Hawaiian recreational waters. Enterovirus Detection in Sewage and Environmental Waters Primer set EQ-1/EQ-29s optimized PCR conditions were confirmed using urban wastewater, resulting in DNA bands of the expected size at all three treatment stages tested. Environmental screening followed, indicating that eleven of the twenty-two sample sites contained EnV contamination, including Diamond Head Beach Park, Pokai Bay, Kailua Bay, Waikiki Beach, Kaiaka Bay Beach Park, Wahiawa Reservoir, Manoa Stream, Ala Moana Beach Park, Ko Olina Beach Park Lagoon 3, Kahala Beach, and Punalu’u Beach Park. Enterovirus Detection in Shellfish Tissue Enterovirus was detected in shellfish tissue from six of nine beach sites tested, including Kahala Beach, Kualoa Regional Park, and the beach parks located at Ala Moana, Waialae, Ko Olina Lagoon 3, and Punalu’u. 20952447” More detailed detection data and a comparison with EnV detection in water samples from corresponding locations is shown in Detection of Enterovirus from Environmental Water While molecular detection assays can be useful for indicating fecal contamination in an area, they do not distinguish between the presence of a specific nucleic acid sequence or complete, viable, and infectious virus particles.The negative result from our infectivity assay could be attributed to various reasons, including: 1) inefficient infection of test cells due to limited viral particles recovered from a relatively small sample volume; 2) enteroviruses present in this sewage sample were truncated, noninfectious viral particles, despite positive RT-PCR detection of the EnV genome; 3) other suboptimal aspects of our infectivity assay protocol, such as viral recovery from membrane, culture conditions, etc. Ongoing work in this laboratory is aimed at establishing a more reliable protocol for determining the relationship between enteroviral MedChemExpress EMA-401 persistence and infectivity. However, regardless of infectivity results, sensitive and efficient molecular detection of EnV remains a highly valuable resource for indicating current or recent fecal contamination in recreational waters. The ability to reliably screen environmental waters for the presence of ” multiple strains of enteric viruses is a highly desirable research tool, facilitating a thorough investigation of potentially contaminated recreational waters. The relatively simple protocols using well-established, conventional RT-PCR procedures are adoptable by a broad range of environmental health agencies, for which more advanced equipment and techniques may be unavailable. The novel use of shellfish as bioindicators of water quality explored here also has interesting implications for enhanced environmental surveillance. Because these animals process large volumes of water daily through filter feeding, any pollutants present in the water, including viral pathogens, bioaccumulate within the internal tissues of the shellfish. By testing these animals for the presence of enteric viruses, this natural bioconcentration phenomenon may be utilized as a means of assessing microbial water quality. As shown in 7 Detection of Enterovirus from Environmental Water interesting to note that from the remaining two sites, Waialae Beach Park and Kualoa Regional Park, where shellfish were shown to contain EnV, water tested EnV-negative. This result suggests that using shellfish as sentinels of water quality is a more sensitive monitoring method than testing water directly.