ORIGINAL PAPER Quantitative Detection and Characterization of Human Adenoviruses in the Buffalo River in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa Vincent N. Chigor • Anthony I. Okoh Received: 23 June 2012 / Accepted: 6 October 2012 / Published online: 18 October 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012 Abstract Buffalo River is an important water resource in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Over a 1-year period (August 2010–July 2011), we assessed the preva- lence of human adenoviruses (HAdVs) at a total of 6 sites on the river and three dams along its course. HAdVs were detected by real-time quantitative PCR in about 35 % of the samples with concentrations ranging from 1.2 9 10 1 genome copies (GC)/l to 4.71 9 10 3 GC/l. HAdVs were detected at 5 of the 6 sampling sites with the detection rate ranging from 8.3 % at Rooikrantz Dam to 92 % at Park- side. The HAdV concentrations across the sampling sites were as follows: Parkside (3.25 9 10 2 –4.71 9 10 3 GC/); King William’s Town (1.02 9 10 2 –4.56 9 10 3 GC/l); and Eluxolzweni (1.17 9 10 2 –3.97 9 10 2 GC/l). Significantly (P \ 0.05) higher concentrations were detected at the non- dam sites compared to the dam sites. A very low mean concentration of 1.86 9 10 1 HAdV GC/l was observed at Bridle Drift Dam. While HAdVs were detected only once at Rooikrantz Dam (1.74 9 10 1 GC/l), no HAdV was detected at Maden Dam. Epidemiologically important serotypes, Ad40/41, constituted 83.3 %, while Ad21 made up 16.7 % of the all HAdVs detected and were character- ized by qualitative PCR. The Buffalo River presents a public health risk heightened by the presence of Ad 40/41 and Ad21. Our results make imperative the need for assessing water sources for viral contamination in the interest of public health. This work is a significant contri- bution to the molecular epidemiology of adenoviruses and to the best of our knowledge this is the first report on detection of enteric virus from surface waters in the Eastern Cape. Keywords Enteric viruses Á Gastroenteritis Á Human adenoviruses Á Serotypes 40 and 41 Á Detection Á Concentration Á Real-time PCR Introduction Lack of safe water and poor sanitation are important risk factors for mortality and morbidity, including diarrhoeal diseases, especially in the developing world (Pruss et al. 2002; WHO 2009). Many different viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases have been associated with waterborne transmission and contaminated source waters (Hunter 2003; Chigor et al. 2010). Although the detection of indi- cator organisms in water connotes the presence of patho- gens, many pathogens of public health importance do not behave like faecal microbial indicators, and there is still no absolute indicator of their presence (Payment and Locas 2011). In particular, recent studies have shown that bac- teriological indicators cannot be used as reliable indicators of faecal pollution and viral particles in water (Muscillo et al. 2008; Jurzik et al. 2010; Okoh et al. 2010). Many studies have, therefore, highlighted the necessity to include several indicators (bacteria and viruses) to estimate reliably the sanitary risk related to faecal contamination of soil and water (Pourcher et al. 2007). Human enteric viruses (HEntVs) are responsible for a large proportion (30–90 %) of gastroenteritis cases worldwide (Fong and Lipp 2005; van Heerden et al. 2005; V. N. Chigor (&) Á A. I. Okoh Applied and Environmental Microbiology Research Group (AEMREG), Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa e-mail: vnchigor@yahoo.com A. I. Okoh e-mail: Aokoh@ufh.ac.za 123 Food Environ Virol (2012) 4:198–208 DOI 10.1007/s12560-012-9090-0