Detection of Monkeypox Virus DNA in Airport Wastewater, Rome, Italy

Abstract

Environmental surveillance can be a complementary tool for detecting pathogens circulating in communities. We detected monkeypox virus DNA in wastewater from Italy’s largest airport by using real-time PCR assays targeting the G2R region and F3L and N3R genes and sequencing. Wastewater surveillance can be quickly adapted to investigate emerging threats.

Keywords

• Monkeypox
• viruses
• zoonoses
• wastewater
• airport
• transportation hub