ArticleThe Science of the total environment2021
Moore swab performs equal to composite and outperforms grab sampling for SARS-CoV-2 monitoring in wastewater.
Article in The Science of the total environment, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Methodological Approaches to SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance.Viruses · 2026Pooled it
- Wastewater surveillance to infer COVID-19 transmission: A systematic review.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- Environmental surveillance of pathogens in Africa.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Review
- Wastewater-based epidemiology to enhance public health preparedness and response during large-scale events: experiences from the 2024 Republican and Democratic National Conventions - Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Clinical correlation of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater passive sampling in long-term care facilities and wastewater treatment plants.Environmental advances · 2025Article
- Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Analysis of Human Papillomavirus Infections in a Uruguayan Urban Area.Food and environmental virology · 2025Article
- Wastewater Speaks: Evaluating SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance, Sampling Methods, and Seasonal Infection Trends on a University Campus.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Assessing Passive Sampling for the Monitoring ofACS ES&T water · 2025Article
- The influence of environmental factors on the detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 variants in dormitory wastewater at a primarily undergraduate institution.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- A Narrative Review of High Throughput Wastewater Sample Processing for Infectious Disease Surveillance: Challenges, Progress, and Future Opportunities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
- A Review of Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for the SARS-CoV-2 Virus in Rural, Remote, and Resource-Constrained Settings Internationally: Insights for Implementation, Research, and Policy for First Nations in Canada.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
- Food and Environmental Virology: Use of Passive Sampling to Characterize the Presence of SARS-CoV-2 and Other Viruses in Wastewater.Food and environmental virology · 2024Article
- A narrative review of wastewater surveillance: pathogens of concern, applications, detection methods, and challenges.Frontiers in public health · 2024Review
- Longitudinal wastewater-based surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 during 2023 in Ethiopia.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Use of wastewater from passenger ships to assess the movement of COVID-19 and other pathogenic viruses across maritime international boundaries.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Passive swab versus grab sampling for detection of SARS-CoV-2 markers in wastewater.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- A long-term passive sampling approach for wastewater-based monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in Leipzig, Germany.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Improving wastewater-based epidemiology performance through streamlined automation.Journal of environmental chemical engineering · 2023Article
- Parallel deployment of passive and composite samplers for surveillance and variant profiling of SARS-CoV-2 in sewage.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 at intra-city level demonstrated high resolution in tracking COVID-19 and calibration using chemical indicators.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approaches to detect SARS-CoV-2 in municipal wastewater can provide unique information on the incidence or prevalence of COVID-19 in community. However, there are several technical challenges coupled with sewage sampling for SARS-CoV-2, including intermittent shedding of viruses, sampling time, volume, and frequency. Sampling schemes thus may need to be tailored to reach out highly sensitive, accurate, and reliable results. Herein, we compared the accuracy and threshold cycle (Ct) profiles of SARS-CoV-2 in Moore swabs, composite (16-h), and grab samples taken from sewage manholes (n = 17) at the Middle Eastern city of Tehran, Iran, on two occasions (November 2020 and May 2021). Samples were concentrated by polyethylene glycol precipitation and the corresponding Ct values for CDC 'N' and 'ORF1ab' assays were derived by means of real time RT-qPCR. Overall, the Moore swabs performed equal to samples composited over 16 h for qualitative monitoring, and 34/34 (100%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2. The 'N' assay showed the highest detection frequency as compared to 'ORF1ab'. The mean Moore swab Ct profiles were more consistent with 16 h composite sampling as compared with corresponding grab samples, providing hints as to the best sampling protocol to adopt when planning a sewage monitoring campaign particularly under WBE. Furthermore, our analyses on local differences showed somewhat higher virus copy numbers in the southern areas. The experimental design of this study revealed that the Moore swab and composite samples are more sensitive than grab samples, suggesting that the collection of grab samples may be inappropriate for characterizing total number of viral RNA copies in sewage samples. Given the transiently presence of human host-restricted infections such as SARS-CoV-2 and the simplicity and affordability of Moore swab, the method is well suited for disease surveillance in resource poor regions struggling with limited capacity for clinical testing.
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Registered trials
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