PCR: Reference Technology for Wastewater Analysis

Wastewater-based epidemiology is an up-and-coming field of endeavor. Analytik Jena is now able to provide a complete solution that has proven itself for the detection of SARS-CoV 2 in wastewater – with a potential that promises much to come.

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) based on PCR tests has been gaining ground as a method, with a potential that is now only beginning to be recognized. COVID monitoring in sewage treatment plants has given this development a boost.

Analytik Jena has developed a complete solution for this that requires only a few manual steps from initial sampling and sample preparation to the PCR results, and is otherwise automated and easily accessible even to non-specialist users. Within three to four hours, it is able to provide certain test results.

Ease of use for routine application

As Head of Microbiology at the EGLV and Ruhrverband cooperative lab, Dr. Christina Meinert-Berning is a first-generation user of the technique: “It is easy to use, which is decisive from the point of view of routine lab work.” Jens Olk, Operations and Project Manager at Chemische Untersuchungsamt Emden GmbH, agrees: “We managed to grasp the new process in a very short period of time and to obtain meaningful, reliable results. The process not only has potential, it’s just plain fun.”

For Dr. Benno Schneider, Managing Director at Eurofins Umwelt Ost GmbH Jena: "The sample preparation is particularly interesting as it is highly automated. This is no comparison to ultracentrifugation, which requires any number of manual steps, is structurally demanding with heavy equipment, and is not without its dangers at its high speeds."

Blazing the trail for wastewater monitoring

An EU recommendation dated March 17, 2021 stipulates that member countries should regularly monitor the SARS-CoV-2 virus load at sewage treatment plants serving more than 150,000 people. Analytik Jena was a step ahead: A functioning and tested workflow that fully meets these requirements was already available in November 2020. We launched the method together with the Emschergenossenschaft/Lippeverband (EGLV) in the Ruhr area, the largest water management association in Germany. Dr. Jens Schoth was in charge of the model project and was “confident that, using our model project, we can form the basis for a wastewater-based monitoring system.“

And the method’s potential reaches well beyond the COVID pandemic. As Analytik Jena program manager Dr. Robert Möller explained: “Using the same set of devices, you can trace the spread of other pathogens throughout the population.” Early warning and monitoring systems are conceivable, for example, for various viruses (hepatitis, polio, norovirus and influenza viruses), bacterial pathogens (salmonella, clostridia, legionella), and for the spread of antibiotic resistance. Jens Olk thinks here, in particular, of uses involving legionella: “Only microbiology is currently accepted officially, which takes several days to cultivate and detect the pathogen. With PCR, you can know within hours whether you have a problem or not.”

At the forefront of research

Analytik Jena is joining together with its partners to address open research issues. Dr. Christine Gräfe, Analytik Jena product manager, explained: “It was not so long ago that extracting genetic information from difficult samples at the sewage treatment plant was unthinkable. Above a certain concentration, we can do that today. The life sciences are developing rapidly and we are right at the center of it.”

Wastewater plant samples are seen to be difficult. As Prof. Silvio Beier, Professor of Technologies for Urban Material Flow Use, Bauhaus University Weimar, elaborated: “The influence of factors such as dilution effects and features peculiar to the catchment area of sewage treatment plants must be taken into account in order to reliably map the infection process.”

Our solution is being implemented at:

RWTH Aachen
Chemisches Untersuchungsamt Emden GmbH (Mitte 2021)
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Oktober 2021)
Eurofins Umwelt Ost Jena
Hygiene-Institut des Ruhrgebiets – Institut für Umwelttoxikologie
Kooperationslabor Ruhrgebiet des EGLV
Universität Greifswald

In round robin tests, our workflow and the assays used have proven effective in wastewater analysis for SARS-CoV-2 in several different laboratories.