Susan DeLong, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and students Nicholas Mohammed and Thomas Anderson, sample wastewater that will be tested by Professor Carol Wilusz lab on campus.

After move-in week, CSU pivoted its efforts to wastewater surveillance from 17 locations tied to residence halls on campus. Coronavirus is shed in the feces before it can be identified from the standard swab test and days before a person would develop symptoms.

Two CSU professors, Carol Wilusz from the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology and Susan DeLong from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, developed a method to collect wastewater in a 24-hour composite sample and return results for SARS-CoV-2 30 hours later.

Wastewater testing is supplemental to and helps drive nasal-swab testing, since it is used to help identify target populations to test. Targeted surveillance in helping to reduce the spread of the virus also can help reduce the overall cost of testing. The process used for each COVID-19 nasal swab costs $100 and includes collection and analysis by an independent company.

When you have limited funds and limited access to tests, (wastewater monitoring) is one way that you can make the most of the funding that you have, said Wilusz.

When a wastewater sample shows a spike in viral counts, the university focuses nasal-swab testing efforts on the people in those areas and its working, according to Wilusz.

There was a bit of a signal from one residence hall at the beginning of September, she said. It wasnt a huge one, and (through individual testing) they found six people in there that had it.

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CSU scientists work to curb the spread of COVID-19 with targeted testing - Source