Kun-Hsien Tsai: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100025, Taiwan. ORCID
Tsai-Ying Yen: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100025, Taiwan.
Hsin-Hsin Tung: Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106319, Taiwan. ORCID
Amy Ho: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100025, Taiwan.
Yang-Ta Chien: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100025, Taiwan.
Chung-Yu Wang: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100025, Taiwan.
Shu-Wei Kang: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100025, Taiwan.
Ning-Ning Juan: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100025, Taiwan.
Fang-Ling Lin: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100025, Taiwan.
Leptospirosis and hantavirus syndrome are two major rodent-borne diseases in Taiwan. (RHEV), a virus closely related to hepatitis E virus (HEV, ), is emerging and has been reported to cause hepatitis in humans. We employed wastewater-based epidemiology to actively monitor rodent-borne pathogens, and the correlations with human cases were evaluated. Wastewater was collected using grab sampling at 11 sites along a sewer system including influents and effluents at a wastewater treatment plant in Tamsui, New Taipei City, Taiwan, monthly during June 2023 to May 2024. The presence of pathogens was examined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The result showed an overall positivity rate of 38.2% (50/131). was detected most often (48/131, 36.6%), and RHEV and hantaviruses were found once each during the study period. Sequencing identified close to isolates from rodents and human cases, while sequences of hantavirus and RHEV were most similar to isolates from rodents. No significant correlation was found with human cases or positive samples for rodent DNA. Here, we present an example of a One Health approach applying wastewater to environmental surveillance for the early detection and prevention of emerging diseases.
NTU-113L9004/the Population Health and Welfare Research Center from Featured Areas Research Center Pro-gram within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan
11104000-0106-0000-2120/the Ministry of Interior, National Land Management Agency
