The International cookbook for wastewater practitioners - Vol. 1 SARS-CoV-2
Testing wastewater for public health
During the 2020-2023 COVID-19 Global Public Health Emergency of International Concern, rapid
progress was made with the application of Wastewater-Based Surveillance (WBS) (also known as
Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE)) to provide population-scale evidence of SARS-CoV-2
shedding into wastewater. The information gained was used to help monitor, communicate, and
manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rapid and significant innovations in the field of WBS were realised in parallel in multiple
jurisdictions globally. Global collaboration resulted in step-change improvements in multiple
aspects of WBS simultaneously, including: health sector leadership; integration with public health
surveillance; social and ethical guidance; high-level tactical wastewater catchment sampling
strategies; wastewater sampling techniques; transport and storage of samples; laboratory
analysis; normalisation and standardisation; data analysis and interpretation; and communication
of results.
Innovations in WBS relating to COVID-19 continue to take place, and the benefits of those
improvements are now being applied to other targets, such as other pathogens and genes. There
are many journal articles and other publications describing these innovations. However, valuable
lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for WBS have not been systematically documented into a
practical and readily digestible format.
The purpose of this ‘Cookbook’ is to provide practical and proven ‘recipes’ for WBS for SARS-CoV-2
for two reasons: firstly to help those considering new or extended WBS programmes targeting
SARS-CoV-2; and secondly to provide a valuable record of what has been learned from the 2020-
2023 period to help inform WBS programmes to respond to future pandemics and for surveillance
of other targets.
The Cookbook is structured into eight parts: 1. Introduction; 2. High-level Overview; 3. Health
Sector Perspectives; 4. Methods and Methodologies - From data to action; 5. Methods and
Methodologies - Measurement and testing; 6. Methods and Methodologies - Sampling; 6. Methods
and Methodologies - Transportation protocols; 8. Conclusions. Multiple authors have contributed to
each part, primarily from the European Union, as well as others from the global community of
practice.
The Cookbook has been drafted by a global team of authors, with one or more lead authors
identified for each chapter and working with their co-authors. The chapters were then subjected to
extensive peer review from the external review group. These authors and reviewers are
acknowledged in the Cookbook.
GAWLIK Bernd Manfred;
COMERO Sara;
DEERE Daniel A.;
MEDEMA Gertjan;
REMONNAY Ismahane;
LORET Jean-François;
DE RODA HUSMAN Ana Maria;
RINCK-PFEIFFER Stephanie;
AGRAWAL Shelesh;
ANZALDI Gabriel;
ARIZZI Maria Concetta;
BASTIAN Daniel;
BAUSA LOPEZ Luis;
BOSCH Albert;
CACCIATORI Caterina;
CÁCERES David A.;
CAO Ricardo;
CARDUCCI Annalaura;
CAROLLO Alice;
CASADO POBLADOR Tanja;
COCUZZA Clementina;
DAHLY Darren;
DE GRAAF Miranda;
DREWES Jörg E.;
DUVALLET Claire;
ECHEVERRIA ROVIRA Lluís;
ELELMAN Richard;
FATTA-KASSINOS Despo;
FEDERIGI Ileana;
GAMST Jesper;
GEORGAKILAS Georgios;
GLOWACKA Natalia;
GREINER Timo;
GRIMSLEY Jasmine;
GUTIERREZ-AGUIRRE Ion;
HADJICHRISTODOULOU Christos;
HAIDICH Anna-Bettina;
HAQUE Rehnuma;
HELMRICH Maria;
HO Johannes;
HOKAJÄRVI Anna-Maria;
HOMMES Aleida;
JANSSENS Raphael;
JESSOME Mary;
JEX Aaron;
KARAOLIA Popi;
KEENUM Ishi;
KIRBY Amy;
KIVIHARJU Oliver;
KOCAMEMİ Bilge Alpaslan;
KOUREAS Michalis;
LA ROSA Giuseppina;
LACROIX Sébastien;
LAZUKA Adèle;
LESENFANTS Marie;
LIN Nancy J.;
LODDER Willemijn;
LOSIO Marina Nadia;
LOUSADA FERREIRA Maria;
MAFFETTONE Roberta;
MANSFELDT Cresten;
MANUEL Douglas;
MARCHINI Antonio;
MARIANI Giulio;
MEDLICOTT Kate;
MONTEIRO Silvia;
NIKOLOPOULOS Georgios;
NOLAN Monica;
NTZANI Evangelia;
OTTAVIANO Claudio;
PALAU Margarita;
PIERANNUNZI Francesco;
PINES Andrew;
PITKÄNEN Taria;
PÜTZ Peter;
QUATTROCCHI Annalisa;
REICHERT Hagen;
RICCI Marina;
ROSSMANN Katalyn;
SAATCI Ahmet Mete;
SANTOS Ricardo;
SAUL Brigitta;
SCHLOSSER Olivier;
SCHOTH Jens;
SHEVCHENKO Oleksiy;
SIBENBERG Katja;
SION Sorin;
SOYEUX Emmanuel;
STRAHWALD Brigitte;
STÜGER Hans-Peter;
TARRÍO Javier;
TAVAZZI Simona;
THERRIEN Jean-David;
TIEHM Andreas;
VAN DER BEEK Ruud;
VAN DER ZAAN Bas;
VARGHA Marta;
VERANI Marco;
WADE Matthew John;
WURZBACHER Christian;
GAWLIK Bernd Manfred;
COMERO Sara;
DEERE Daniel A.;
MEDEMA Gertjan;
REMONNAY Ismahane;
LORET Jean-François;
DE RODA HUSMAN Ana Maria;
RINCK-PFEIFFER Stephanie;
2024-08-02
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC138489
978-92-68-20062-9 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 32024,
OP KJ-NA-32-024-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC138489,
10.2760/995967 (online),
Additional supporting files
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