Detection of Legionella spp. in influent wastewater in Kobe City, Japan.

Publisher: IWA Pub Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101185420 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 1477-8920 (Print) Linking ISSN: 14778920 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Water Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London ; Avenel, NJ : IWA Pub., c2003-

Wastewater*/microbiology ; Legionella*/isolation & purification ; Legionella*/genetics ; Legionella*/classification; Japan ; Water Microbiology

Legionella is an important waterborne pathogen that causes Legionnaires' disease (LD). Several outbreaks associated with wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been reported in recent years; however, the prevalence of Legionella in WWTPs in Japan has rarely been investigated. In this study, we investigated the distribution of Legionella in influent wastewater collected from two WWTPs in Kobe, Japan between April 2023 and March 2024. The concentrations for Legionella in all seasons varied between 10 ⁴ and 10 ⁶ copies/100 mL in all seasons. Among the 10 Legionella species detected in the influent wastewater, Legionella pneumophila was the most commonly isolated. Genotyping revealed that pathogenic L. pneumophila strains were widely distributed in the influent wastewater in Japan with genetic diversity. LD is one of the most important infectious diseases during natural disasters. This study highlights the importance of influent wastewater as a potential source of LD in Japan, where natural disasters occur frequently.
Competing Interests: The authors declare there is no conflict.
(© 2024 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

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23K11469 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Keywords: Legionella; Legionella pneumophila; SBT; influent wastewater

0 (Wastewater)

Date Created: 20241129 Date Completed: 20241129 Latest Revision: 20241129

20241202

10.2166/wh.2024.167

39611668