Pepper mild mottle virus as an indicator of fecal contamination in water: a review on research progress

In recent years, the problem of human fecal pollution in reclaimed water has become increasingly prominent. The commonly used water quality monitoring bacterial index – faeces pollution index bacteria (FIB) cannot monitor the presence of virus in feces and commonly used viral indicators vary greatly according to different epidemics and seasonal changes. There is therefore a need for a high abundance and stable fecal contamination indicator and a reliable domestic sewage tracer to monitor microbial quality in water sources. Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) is a highly prevalent plant pathogen in human feces and has been included in 29 global water quality and technology related microbiological quality and technology catalogs. This review summarizes published literature from different disciplines and finds that high abundance, low removal rate and no obvious seasonal variation of plant pathogens – PMMoV can be used sensitively to identify the presence of fecal pollution in water sources and to track the contaminated water, which is a promising indicator of water fecal contimination.