Calgary scientists hope to find early warning signs of pandemic's 2nd wave — in feces

What you flush down the toilet could prove precious to a team of Calgary researchers looking to prevent future outbreaks of COVID-19.

"There's a lot of information in wastewater and we shouldn't just let that information go down the drain," said Kevin Frankowski, the executive director of Advancing Canadian Wastewater Assets (ACWA) at the University of Calgary.

University researchers will work with the city and Alberta Health Services to test samples from Calgary's three wastewater treatment plants and other locations within the city's wastewater system to find signs of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

"What we're looking for are genetic traces of the virus that causes COVID-19. You can think of it as similar to looking for DNA evidence at a crime scene after the criminals have left," Frankowski said.

Signs of virus can live in wastewater for a week

Genetic traces of the virus can be found in the feces of people who have yet to show symptoms or are asymptomatic, as well as people with symptoms.

"There's a lot of nucleic acid from the virus that is shed in feces and will survive in wastewater for up to a week, such that we will be able to track remnants of the virus but not the virus itself," said Dr. Michael Parkins, an infectious disease expert at the U of C.

Before each wastewater sample will be tested for COVID-19, it will go to ACWA for initial processing, and then on to the U of C's geomicrobiology and clinical microbiology labs where researchers will look for RNA, the virus' genetic material.

The processing is necessary because wastewater contains more than just urine or fecal matter — it's everything that goes down the drain.

"We will use a strategy to collect a 24-hour composite sample of wastewater which contains all kinds of unpleasantness, which will then be received at a special laboratory and concentrated from a very, very large volume on to a very, very, very, very, very small volume that we can then do molecular tests," said Parkins.

An abundance of that RNA could point researchers to hotspots of active cases — and AHS will advise the researchers of communities of concern, to deploy testing in those areas.

"The concept or the intent here is to give public health officials … an early warning signal about the intensity of a second wave," Frankowski said.

The project, which is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, will begin immediately, the U of C said. 

It's one of eight U of C projects chosen to receive the federal funding.