Respiratory Viruses in Wastewater
Inter-laboratory Methods Comparison

In 2020, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) established the Wastewater Surveillance Initiative to detect COVID‑19 in wastewater samples across Ontario.

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Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) is providing technical expertise to support these pandemic response efforts by coordinating an inter-laboratory study program amongst the provincial network of academic and research institution partners. This program, in combination with the technical guidance developed, helps ensure that participating labs are generating high-quality and accurate wastewater surveillance data. The current inter-lab has been expanded to serve Canada nationally with the support of Public Health Agency of Canada - National Microbiological Laboratory (PHAC-NML) and is geared towards RT-qPCR- and dPCR-based methods that are most commonly used in wastewater surveillance applications globally.

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Over 40 academic, public health/environmental and commercial sector laboratories in Canada and the United States have participated in this program to date. This program will be transitioned over the next few rounds into a first-of-its-kind accredited Proficiency Testing program (ISO 17043:2010) to continue serving laboratories undertaking wastewater surveillance activities.

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Sign-up to this website is required to access further information including inter-lab requirements, as well as access to participant materials and reports. 

Please contact us at interlab@ocwa.com to find out more!