Comparison of two PCR platforms for the detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in sewage at institutional and country levels.

Abstract

The current pandemic situation has lead to countries’ governments and institutions to the seach of affordable, time-effective tools for the identification and surveillance of pathogen’s levels across the population, in order to achieve this goals, WBE (Wastewater Based Epidemiology) has been proposed and carried out successfully in several countries. In this study, we compare two different PCR platforms, RT-qPCR and ddPCR, for the detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Campus at a national level and at a Municipal level, considering various WWTPs (wastewater treatment plants). The differences between both platforms are highlighted as well as their performance. In this study RT-qPCR appears to be better-suited for the analysis of a complex matrix, in contrast ddPCR could be more useful in the early detection of the virus with clinical samples.