Genetic Diversity and Quantification of Adenoviruses in Wastewater from Sydney and Melbourne, Australia

Adenoviruses (AdV) are DNA viruses that can cause a wide range of clinical diseases, including gastroenteritis, respiratory illnesses, conjunctivitis, and in more severe cases hepatitis, pancreatitis and disseminated diseases. AdV infections are generally asymptomatic or self-limiting, but can cause adverse outcomes within vulnerable populations. Since most of AdV serotypes replicate within the human gastrointestinal tract, high levels of AdV DNA are excreted into wastewater systems. In this study, we identified the genetic diversity of AdV at a population level using wastewater samples collected from Sydney and Melbourne from 2016 - 2017, using next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies.