Is your university, government or private sector lab involved in wastewater surveillance? Fill out the Coalition’s Canadian Lab Capacity and Readiness Survey.
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There is general confidence in the scientific community that wastewater surveillance programs can provide early detection of virus occurrence or re-emergence. However, each program needs to be tailored to site- and wastewater-specific conditions. The COVID-19 Wastewater Coalition’s Inter-Laboratory Study is the first phase of a national pilot and will characterize the inter- and intra-laboratory variability associated with results from testing of SARS-CoV-2 using RT-qPCR after extraction from a common wastewater matrix.
The purpose of the Coalition’s Inter-Laboratory Study is to converge on a consensus approach that can be used to maximize recovery of SARS-CoV-2 from a wastewater matrix. The study’s findings will be captured by an annotated report and will recommend a validation protocol to evaluate process and extraction efficiency and inhibition.
The Inter-Laboratory Study is being conducted in collaboration with Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory, which is serving as the coordinating reference lab for the study. Research labs located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Windsor, Montréal and Halifax will take part in the project.
This study’s findings will be useful for:
- Public health decision makers to understand the caveats and other considerations associated with testing results
- Decision makers who are considering the feasibility of local, provincial and nation-wide COVID-19 wastewater surveillance programs
- Laboratories in the process of adapting SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR methods to various wastewater matrices
For more information about the Inter-Lab Study, contact Dr. Alex Chik (study coordinator).