Preliminary evaluation of BioFire FilmArray(A (R)) Gastrointestinal Panel for the detection of noroviruses and other enteric viruses from wastewater and shellfish

The BioFire FilmArray(A (R)) Gastrointestinal Panel was evaluated for the rapid detection of adenovirus, astrovirus, norovirus, rotavirus and sapovirus from influent and effluent wastewater and shellfish. The multiplex BioFire FilmArray(A (R)) Gastrointestinal Panel compared well to singleplex qPCR/RT-qPCR methods for the detection of adenovirus, astrovirus, rotavirus and sapovirus from influent and effluent wastewater samples. However, the BioFire FilmArray(A (R)) Gastrointestinal Panel showed poor performance for the detection of norovirus, significantly underestimating its presence in wastewater and shellfish samples when compared with the singleplex norovirus GI and GII RT-qPCR assays. Therefore, improvement on detection efficiency for norovirus from environmental and food samples is necessary before using results from the FilmArray(A (R)) Gastrointestinal Panel to assess associated public health risks.