Purpose: The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of NoV on select bathroom surfaces in retail food and foodservice establishments in South Carolina (SC).
Methods: A total of 120 foodservice establishments were randomly selected from a list of licensed food establishments in 9 SC counties. Four surfaces (toilet seat, flush handle of same toilet, bathroom door handle, and sink faucet handle) were swabbed in male and female bathrooms using macrofoam swabs pre-moistened with a solution of PBS and Tween 80 (0.02%) at a pH of 6.5. The RNA samples extracted from swabs were concentrated and analyzed by real-time RT-PCR. GI and GII NoV transcripts were used as positive controls and nuclease-free water was used as a negative control.
Results: In total, 15/681 (2.2%) swabs from 13 (10.8%) establishments were presumptively positive for NoV. Factors significantly associated with NoV presence included gender of bathroom, mechanism of toilet flush, door handle type, sink faucet type, paper towel dispenser material, and trash can type. We found borderline association between gender of bathroom and type of establishment.
Significance: Our results suggest bathrooms can be a source of NoV in food establishments so greater emphasis needs to be placed on cleaning and disinfecting bathroom surfaces.