Molecular detection of human enteric viruses in urban rivers in Korea

We performed RT-nested PCR to study the distribution of human enteric viruses in urban rivers in Korea. During 2002-2003, water samples were collected from four rivers in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Among 58 samples, 45 (77.6%), 32 (55.2%), 12 (20.7%), 2 (3.4%), 4 (6.9%), and 4 (6.9%) showed positive results with adenoviruses (AdVs), enteroviruses (EVs), reoviruses (ReVs), hepatitis A viruses (HAVs), rotaviruses (RoVs), and sapoviruses (SVs), respectively. According to the binary logistic regression model, the occurrence of each enteric virus, except ReVs and HAVs, was not statistically correlated with the water temperature and levels of fecal coliforms (P<0.05). AdVs were most often detected; only 4 samples (6.9%) were negative for AdVs while positive for other enteric viruses in the studied sites. Our results indicated that monitoring human enteric viruses is necessary to improve microbial quality, and that AdVs detection by PCR can be a useful index for the presence of other enteric viruses in aquatic environments.