Field verification of adenovirus assays for source tracking

Individual qPCR assays for bovine adenovirus and porcine adenovirus targets were adapted from assays published in the literature for use with TaqMan chemistry on the ABI 7500 platform. The intent was to add these assays to the State of Wisconsin’s toolbox for source investigations of drinking water contamination. The performance of these assays were examined under various sample concentration and clean-up approaches. The optimized assays were used to testdifferent sources (feces and wastewater) and environmental samples for specificity, sensitivity and cross-reactivity. In addition, initial experimentation was conducted to evaluate the potential of multi-plexing these two assays into one. Overall, the workflow and assays are summarized in the Conclusions and Recommendations section of this report.As with all microbial source tracking (MST)assays, supplemental information such as sanitary surveys and careful interpretationof assay results are also key to their effective use