The detection of Japanese encephalitis virus in municipal wastewater during an acute disease outbreak.

This article focuses on demonstrating the potential of wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) as a tool for detecting Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) infection in communities. By leveraging an established SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance program, researchers applied two reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays targeting JEV to archived wastewater samples from two treatment plants in South Australia's Riverland and Murraylands regions. JEV was detected in wastewater samples collected during a period coinciding with a cluster of acute human encephalitis cases and concurrent evidence of JEV in mosquito and sentinel chicken surveillance programs. The findings suggest that WBS could serve as a complementary method to existing surveillance approaches, potentially improving early detection and monitoring of JEV transmission within a One Health framework.