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Effects of pH Variability on Peracetic Acid Reduction of Human Norovirus GI, GII RNA, and Infectivity Plus RNA Reduction of Selected Surrogates

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Abstract

With increasing interest in peracetic acid (PAA) as a disinfectant in water treatment processes, this study determined PAA treatment effects on human noroviruses (hNoVs) genotype I (GI) and genotype II (GII) as well as effects on bacteriophage MS2 and murine norovirus (MNV) in relation to pH. Across all pH conditions, PAA achieved between 0.2 and 2.5 log10 reduction of hNoVs over 120 min contact time in buffer solution as measured by reverse transcription-qPCR (RT-qPCR). The PAA treatments produced similar RT-qPCR reductions of MS2 and MNV, in the range of 0.2–2.7 log10. Infectivity assays achieved > 4 log10 reduction of both MS2 and MNV in buffer solution after 120 min contact time. Comparing PAA activity across varying pH, disinfection at pH 8.5, in general, resulted in less reduction of infectivity and molecular signals compared to pH conditions of 6.5 and 7.5. This difference was most pronounced for reductions in infectivity of MNV and MS2, with as much as 2.7 log10 less reduction at pH 8.5 relative to lower pH conditions. This study revealed that PAA was an effective disinfectant for treatment of hNoV GI and GII, MS2 and MNV, with greatest virus reduction observed for MS2 and MNV infectivity. RT-qPCR reductions of MS2 and MNV were lower than concurrent MS2 and MNV infectivity reductions, suggesting that observed hNoV RT-qPCR reductions may underestimate reductions in hNoV infectivity achieved by PAA. Although virus disinfection by PAA occurred at all evaluated pH levels, PAA is most effective at pH 6.5–7.5.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Award ID# DGE-1232825), the JHU/Stantec Alliance, the Johns Hopkins Water Institute (Award ID GW-0010), and the Osprey Foundation (Award ID OFM-0014) of Maryland. We thank Dr. Charles Haas for insightful discussions regarding modeling of hNoV and viral surrogates and PeroxyChem Inc. for providing PAA.

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  1. Nathan Dunkin and Caroline Coulter have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Nathan Dunkin, Caroline Coulter, Joseph G. Jacangelo & Kellogg J. Schwab

  2. JHU/Stantec Alliance, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    ShihChi Weng, Joseph G. Jacangelo & Kellogg J. Schwab

  3. MWH-Stantec, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Joseph G. Jacangelo

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  1. Nathan Dunkin
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Correspondence to Kellogg J. Schwab.

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Dunkin, N., Coulter, C., Weng, S. et al. Effects of pH Variability on Peracetic Acid Reduction of Human Norovirus GI, GII RNA, and Infectivity Plus RNA Reduction of Selected Surrogates. Food Environ Virol 11, 76–89 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12560-018-9359-z

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