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Short Communication |

1 Department of Hygiene, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
2 Department of Molecular and Medical Virology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Correspondence
Ibrahim Ahmed Hamza
ibrahimvnrc{at}yahoo.com
Human bocavirus (HBoV) was recently discovered in children with respiratory-tract infection and has been detected frequently in faecal specimens from children with gastroenteritis. The present study addresses for the first time, to our knowledge, the prevalence of HBoV in river water. By using a newly developed real-time PCR targeting a conserved region of the NP1 gene of HBoV, virus levels in water samples were determined. Moreover, partial sequence analysis of the NP1 gene of HBoV and comparative phylogenetic analysis were performed. HBoV was detected in 40.8 % of collected water samples. The virus level ranged between 3x101 and 2x103 genome equivalents l–1. Therefore, the present study suggests that river water could play a role in the spread of HBoV. However, further work should be done to determine the actual risk of infection via surface water.
Present address: Environmental Virology Laboratory, Department of Water Pollution Research, National Research Centre, 12311 Dokki, Cairo, Egypt.
The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the human bocavirus sequences reported in this study are GQ129120 [GenBank] –GQ129129.
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