Partner 1. The University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UWA)
VIROBATHE Participants
Partner 1. The University of Wales, Aberystwyth
(UWA)
Professor David Kay leads the Centre for Health and Environment
Research Expertise (CHERE), a joint research
initiative between the University of Wales,
Aberystwyth and the Wales National College
of Medicine in Cardiff. It is supported by
the Knowledge Exploitation Fund of the Welsh
Assembly Government. In the late 1980s the
Centre completed the first randomised epidemiological
trials on bathing water exposures which were
chosen after independent WHO review to underpin
the new WHO Guidelines for recreational water
environments.
More recently Centre staff have undertaken
large scale statistical analyses of virological
and bac, and internationally Centre members
have acted as advisers and consultants to
the Commission on the revision of the Bathing
Water Directive 76/160/EEC.
Dr Peter Wyn-Jones is Vice Co-ordinator and Lead Scientist
for VIROBATHE. Dr Wyn-Jones is an international
authority on viruses in water and was one
of the first authors to publish information
of the methods for detection of noroviruses
in different aquatic matrices. He is a member
of the UK Health Protection Agency's Advisory
Committee on Water and the Environment, he
has written reviews of water virology methods
and is a Co-Author of a book on the Microbiology
of Waterborne Disease.
Partner 2. University of Pisa (PIS) 
Prof Annalaura Carducci directs the research programme at the Laboratory
of Experimental Pathology, Medical Biotechnology,
Infectivology and Epidemiology Department
of the University of Pisa. This is directed
at the study and application of methods for
the detection of human viruses in environmental
samples (marine, surface, tap and ground
waters, sediments, molluscs, aerosols, and
surfaces in hospital settings) and to the
evaluation of possible indicators of viral
pollution. In particular the laboratory has
studied concentration techniques, observing
that tangential flow ulftrafiltration is
very efficient for virus recovery. This technique
has been applied to various environmental
surveys within research projects founded
by the National and Local Authorities: in
1994-1995 marine waters on the Adriatic,
in 1997-1998 on the Tyrrhenian, in 2001-2002
on the Ionic coasts.
Besides the research activities, the Laboratory
offers analytical services for the sanitary
control of recreational waters and land/sediment
displacement, and organizes specializing-training
courses.
Partner 3. 
Dr Nigel Cook is an expert on the detection of viruses
in foods. His team has wide experience in
the organization of multicentre collaborative
trials, most particularly in the European
Commission FP 5 project "Validation
and Standardization of Diagnostic Polymerase
Chain Reaction for Detection of Foodborne
Pathogens", which produced several methods
now being led through international standardization.
The team is one of the very few globally
which routinely analyses foodstuffs for enteric
viral pathogens such as noroviruses. The
MIC4 team at CSL has over 10 years experience
in the use of molecular-based amplification
techniques. With extensive national and international
funding (RT)PCR assays for a variety of bacterial
and viral pathogens have been developed in
its laboratory, and the team has pioneered
the use of nucleic acid sequence-based amplification
(NASBA) for detection of viable bacteria.
Partner 4. Rijksinstituut voor Volksgesondheit
en Milieu (RIVM) 
Dr Ana-Maria de Roda Husman is the Head of the Laboratory for Health
Related Water Microbiology. The research
programme is directed at the quantitative
assessment of the health risks posed by exposure
to pathogens in water used for drinking water,
food production or recreation. The project
group is actively involved in standardisation
of methods for microbial detection in water
for the Dutch National Standardisation Committee
and ISO and advises the EU in EMAG. Methods
were developed and implemented as a participant
of the EU projects Virus Safe Seafood and
Foodborne viruses in Europe co-ordinated
by IFREMER in France and the RIVM in the
Netherlands. Food products such as oysters
and production waters were analysed for the
presence of entero-, noro-, astro-, rota-
and hepatitis A viruses. Furthermore, the
role of bacteria and bacteriophages as potential
indicators for the presence of enteric viruses
was assessed.
Partner 5. University of Rome, Tor Vergata
(ROME-TV) 
Dr Maurizio Divizia is an Associate Professor of Hygiene and
chief of the Virology Unit. The research
programmes have been directed at the study
of different methods for concentration of
enteric viruses starting from environmental
samples such as surface and drinking waters,
sea waters, wastewater and sludges as well
as food, in particular mussels. The Laboratory
has also been involved since the beginning
of the 1990s in the monitoring of drinking
waters of Rome under several contracts with
the ACEA Authority (Municipal Authority).
The main interest included the presence of
enteroviruses as poliovirus and hepatitis
A virus (HAV). The laboratory was also involved
in several projects involving the enteric
viruses contamination in Albania under the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and included
the transfer of know-how and the training
of Albanian technicians. The laboratory was
involved in evaluating the water quality
in Tirana, the outbreak of poliomyelitis,
in the population and genotyping of HAV,
and in the study the outbreak of HAV and
the diffusion and viral characterisation
of gastroenteritis in children in Tirana
with the cooperation of Public Health Institute
and the Paediatric Hospital in Tirana.
Partner 6. Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart-Landesgesundheitsamt
(LGA) 
Dr. Jens Fleischer is Head of the Water Laboratory at the LGA.
In co-operation with 33 local public health
offices the Department for Water Hygiene
at the LGA performs microbiological analyses
for all of Baden-Württemberg's >300 fresh-water
EU designated bathing sites. Cell culture
detection methods as well as PCR protocols
for enterovirus, adenovirus and rotavirus
and PCR protocols for norovirus and HAV are
established and are used for the examination
of human clinical specimens as well as in
water analysis.
Partner 7. Université Henri Poincaré-Nancy
(UHP) 
Dr Christophe Gantzer is Head of the Virology Group and an Associate
Professor in Microbiology and Chemistry of
Water. The Laboratory has participated in
two European projects since 1998 (INCO-DEV:
ERB3514PL972471 and EVK1-2000-22080) concerning
the behaviour of micro-organisms in water.
His main interests are the utilization of
bacteriophages as viral pollution indicators
in water, the development of molecular biology
techniques for the detection of virus in
environment, and the degradation and behaviour
of viral particles in water.
Partner 8. Environment Agency (EA) 
Mr Andrew Gawler is the Senior Scientist and Manager of the
Microbiology unit at NLS Starcross, UK. The
laboratory is the largest Microbiology facility
in the Environment Agency. It carries out
large numbers of virological and bacteriological
tests for investigative and regulatory purposes
and supports several Environment Agency R&D
projects including. EU Interreg IIIb ICRW
project and EU Interreg IIIa Cycleau project.
The laboratory holds UKAS accreditation to
ISO 17025 standards for all its analytical
methods.
Partner 9. The University of Barcelona (UB)
Professor Rosina Girones is a Tenured Professor of Microbiology in
the Department of Microbiology. Her areas
of research include environmental virology
and the molecular epidemiology of viruses
transmitted through water or food. The Laboratory
has been involved for more than 15 years
in the development of techniques for the
detection and typing of viruses in the environment,
especially in developing molecular methods
for the detection of adenoviruses, enteroviruses,
hepatitis A and E viruses, and human polyomaviruses.
The Laboratory coordinated the project FAIR
CT-98-4039 for the development of methods
and study of the viral contamination and
potential indicators in shellfish, with the
participation of laboratories of diverse
geographical areas in Europe, and found that
human adenoviruses are the most prevalent
viruses detected in shellfish, water and
in urban sewage in all geographical areas.
Partner 10. Landesamt für Gesundheit und
Lebensmittelsicherheit (LGL) 
Professor Christiane Hoeller is a physician with a specialisation in Hygiene and Environmental Medicine and since April 2003 has been Head of the Department of Hygiene in LGL. This Laboratory includes Departments of Water Microbiology, Molecular Biology department and Food Microbiology. LGL is responsible for the surveillance of water, food, human and animal health in Bavaria. It is involved not only in monitoring in the different fields of public interest, but is also the scientific contact for the Ministry for Environment, Health and Consumer Protection and the 76 public health offices of Bavaria. It is linked scientifically to five universities in Bavaria and is co-operating with them in various research projects. The accredited water department of the agency performs all microbiological water analyses for the >200 fresh water bathing sites in Bavaria that have to be monitored according to the European Bathing Water Directive. The LGL is also the reference laboratory for Bavaria for molecular biology and takes part in national and international expert groups on PCR diagnostics.
Partner 11. Umweltbundesamt (UBA)
Dr Juan López-Pila is an expert in the derivation of models
for assessing the risk originating from contaminated
waters, the development of detection methods
for viruses in water, and the assessment
of the elimination of pathogens by advanced
procedures for wastewater treatment. Dr.
López-Pila has been an Associate of The National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA, and
has extensively collaborated with the Institute
Pasteur, Paris. He has been chairman of the
German Board for the Protection of Bathing
Waters, and the federal German representative
in the EEC-Committee on Adaptation to Technical
Progress as specified in Article 10 of the
Council Directive 76/160/EEC concerning the
quality of bathing water. Dr Lopez-Pila's
Laboratory has four key tasks:
1. prevention and risk assessment of waterborne
diseases
2. development and standardisation of methods
for detecting pathogens in the environment
3. surveillance of the microbiological quality
of the German bathing waters as specified
in the EU directive 76/160/EEC
4. assessment of novel procedures for wastewater
treatment with respect to wastewater hygiene
Dr Lopez-Pila is a member of the Project
Advisory Board, and he acts as liaison partner
for the northern European group of laboratories.
Partner 12. National Veterinary Research
Institute-State Research Institute (NVRI)
Professor Beata Mizak is Head of the Department of Carnivora and
Fur Animal Diseases at NVRI. The Laboratory
provides a diagnostic service for field veterinary
laboratories, but its main activities centre
on application of molecular biology methods
for diagnosis and immunoprophylaxis of infectious
diseases of animals and evaluation of genetic
diversity among viral pathogens examined.
It is currently expanding its remit to become
involved in environmental monitoring; it
recently conducted a project on monitoring
viral contamination of bivalve molluscs,
and a Laboratory of Environmental Virology
will soon be launched with the dual function
of offering analytical services for the sanitary
control of recreational waters and land/sediment
displacement as well as fundamental research
projects.
Partner 13. Istituto Superiore Sanità (ISS)
Dr Michele Muscillo is a Senior Researcher in charge of the Environmental
Virology Unit. His areas of research include
marine microbiology and environmental virology,
and the molecular taxonomy of viruses. He
is a Director of Bioinformatics, dealing
with Linux/Solaris multitasking multisharing
operating systems and bioinformatic programs
for phylogenetic analysis of microorganisms.
The Unit has been involved since 1993 in
the monitoring of the hygienic quality of
the water in the Central/Northern Adriatic
Sea under a contract with the MURST (Ministero
Ricerca Scientifica Tecnologica) Authority.
In 1998-1999 the laboratory was involved
in the study of diagnostic protocols for
the identification of enteroviruses, adenoviruses,
rotavirus and reoviruses in the bathing waters
in a study dealing with the association between
the bathing and gastroenteritis in the Adriatic
areas under a contract with the CNR (Consiglio
Nazionale Ricerca) Authority.
Partner 14. Faculdade Farmácia, Universidade
do Porto (UP) 
Professor Maria de São José Nascimento is an Associate Professor in the Microbiology
Laboratory of the Faculty of Pharmacy. The
Faculty is broadening its sphere of activity
and Professor Nascimento has responsibility
for development of research projects associated
with environmental surveillance. The Public
Water Services of Porto City is committed
to studying how sewage treatment performed
in the Porto region affects the infectivity
or survival of viruses. The detection of
viruses in marine recreational waters is
very important to Porto and to the North
of Portugal given the high number of beaches
and the significance of tourism to the local
economy. This is a new and pioneering work
in Portugal that will empower the Microbiology
Laboratory with the dual function of offering
not only a community service for the sanitary
control of viruses in waters but also a field
for applied research so important to the
development of the Faculty.
Partner 15. State General Laboratory (SGL)
Dr George Papageorgiou is Head of the Water, Pharmaceutical and
Virology Lab and has 20 years of experience
in water, food and pharmaceutical microbiology.
In the last seven years, in co-operation
with the University of Barcelona he has been
involved in research in environmental virology
and more specifically in the development
of new methods for the isolation and identification
of viruses adsorbed to cellulose nitrate
membranes. The Laboratory currently participates
in two other funded Programmes: Tracking
the origin of faecal pollution in surface
waters (EVK1-2000-22080) a three-year project
funded by the EU 5th Framework Programme
and the UNOPS-funded bi-communal programme
Integrated monitoring and early warning systems
for the Nicosia Sewage Treatment Plant at
Mia Milia- Safe reuse of effluents (WSE-FS-4049).
It has also participated in the UNHCR funded
project 96/CY/CYP/CM/270 and the EU-funded
project LIFE 95/CY/BZ/CT/868 MED, both multidisciplinary
projects for the quality of surface waters
of Cyprus.
Partner 16. The Health Protection Agency
(HPA) 
Dr Jane Sellwood is VIROBATHE's Quality Manager. Dr Sellwood
is well-qualified to act in this role; in
addition to leading the HPA Environmental
Virology Unit, Dr Sellwood manages the a
Europe-wide External Quality Assurance Scheme
for water virology. She chairs a CEN Task
Group for the Water Microbiology Working
Group on development of a method for the
detection of enteroviruses in bathing waters
(CEN/TC230/WG3/TG4). The experience of a
CEN Task Group Chairman is valuable in bringing
together highly experienced partners for
VIROBATHE to ensure it reflects requirements
of CEN, ISO and other standards bodies. Following
completion of VIROBATHE there will be a basis
for standards development which CEN/ISO should
consider when, for example, numerical standards
for viruses detected by PCR are available.
