Inactivation rate of murine hepatitis virus, a surrogate of SARS-CoV-2, in aerobic and anaerobic wastewater treatments

This dataset contains the experimental data supporting the study “Inactivation rate of murine hepatitis virus, a surrogate of SARS-CoV-2, in aerobic and anaerobic wastewater treatments.” The data include two complementary components: (1) RT-dPCR measurements of total and viability-associated murine hepatitis virus (MHV) genome concentrations during controlled decay experiments in raw wastewater, aerobic treatment, anaerobic digestion, and a non-biological control; and (2) RT-qPCR data used to optimize SDS-PMAxx™ pretreatment for discrimination between non-inactivated and heat-inactivated MHV in a wastewater matrix. The RT-dPCR dataset includes treatment-specific sampling times, sample-processing volumes, calculated MHV genome concentrations, transformed variables used for kinetic analyses, and explicit identification of observations excluded from regression analyses. Samples yielding zero positive RT-dPCR partitions were operationally represented as 0 copies/mL for analyses on the original concentration scale. Because an independent analytical limit of detection was not established, these observations should be interpreted as absence of detectable target under the assay conditions rather than absolute absence of viral RNA. The PMAxx™ optimization dataset includes Ct values for untreated controls, SDS-only treatments, and SDS 0.005% combined with PMAxx™ concentrations of 25, 50, and 100 µM in non-inactivated and heat-inactivated MHV. No-template controls showed late amplification at Ct 32.897 and 32.492; these values are retained in the dataset for transparency. The optimized condition used in subsequent RT-dPCR experiments was SDS 0.005% plus PMAxx™ 50 µM. All excluded or non-analyzed observations have been retained and clearly labeled rather than removed. Each workbook includes a README, data dictionary, and quality-control/exclusion notes to facilitate interpretation and reuse. Viability-associated molecular measurements should be interpreted as indicators of viral particle integrity and not as direct measurements of infectivity.