EU-WISH at WaterMicro2025: Showcasing expertise and strengthening connections
WaterMicro2025 offered EU-WISH members an ideal opportunity for scientific exchanges and personal contacts
The 22nd Health Related Water Microbiology Conference, held in the Netherlands, attracted over 500 participants from around the world. The impressive scientific programme included 380 posters, 135 oral presentations, 11 side events, six workshops and two WHO workshops.
EU-WISH was well represented at this significant event.
Many members of the EU-WISH consortium contributed to the conference by presenting their research and expertise on various topics related to water, microbes, and public health. Their participation reflected the diversity and excellence of the consortium, highlighting its leading role in wastewater-based surveillance and related fields.
A detailed list of all scientific contributions by EU-WISH members is provided below, further illustrating the breadth and depth of the consortium’s knowledge.
| Title | Authors | Country |
| Let's team up to unlock the outbreak with the wastewater code. | Henry-Michel Cauchie, Blandine Fauvel and Leslie Ogorzaly | Luxembourg |
| Title | Authors | Country |
| AMR surveillance in (waste)water - options for implementation, including in the European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive | Heike Schmitt, Roosmarijn Luiken, Tarja Pitkänen, Christophe Dagot and Zakaria Garba | Netherlands, Finland, France and Burkina Faso |
| Title | Authors | Country |
| Antibiotic resistance determinant analysis in solid and liquid wastewater components towards methodology improvement and harmonization | Andrea Naziri, Popi Karaolia, Theoni Mina, Sotirios Vasileiadis, Despo Fatta-Kassinos | Cyprus, Greece |
| Multipathogenic wastewater surveillance: method optimization for multiple targets from a single sample | Ábel Csongor Németh, Eszter Róka, Bernadett Khayer, Balázs Seres, Boglárka Pollák, Eszter Schuler, Bernadett Pályi, Judit Henczkó, Márta Vargha | Hungary |
| Full-scale spatiotemporal investigation of biostability in a drinking water distribution system using online flow cytometry and 16S gene sequencing. | Jean-Baptiste Burnet, Thomas Bodziuch, Zuzana Dedova, Aude Corvisy, Sébastien Balbeur, Marc Schroeder, Henry-Michel Cauchie | Luxembourg |
| Lessons learned from extensive wastewater-based genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the Netherlands: April 2021 to December 2023. | Auke Haver, Gino Raaijmakers, Steff van Blokland, Ivo D. Grift, Rick Theijn, Max van Velzen, Arno Wijsmuller, Sieuwerd A.E. Hooyman, Yu-Ling Z. Beck, Elsa Poorter, NRS Consortium, Jaap T. van Dissel, Wouter A. Hetebrij, Dirk Eggink, Jeroen F.J. Laros, Willemijn J. Lodder | Netherlands |
| Detection of a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 and other health-significant enteroviruses in Metropolitan Barcelona sewage. | Albert Carcereny, David Garcia-Pedemonte, Maria Isabel Costafreda, Carme Chacón, Jacobo Mendioroz, Margarita Palau, Belén Galofré, Miquel Paraira, Susana Guix, Rosa M Pintó, Albert Bosch. | Spain |
| SARS-CoV-2 outcompetition efficiency across variants: a virus population assessment in wastewater. | Rosa M Pintó, Albert Carcereny, David Garcia-Pedemonte, Maria Isabel Costafreda, Gloria Sánchez, Ana Allende, Margarita Palau, Jacobo Mendioroz, Albert Bosch, Susana Guix. | Spain |
| Title | Authors | Country |
| Evaluating different sampling and processing approaches for robust surveillance of antibiotic resistance genes and faecal pollution markers in wastewater | Julia Vierheilig, Irina Dielacher, , Theresa Hohl, Moritz Pellegrini, Kasia Slipko, Roland Martzy, Rita Linke, Helene Holzwarth, Sonia Galazka, Markus Wögerbauer, Jörg Krampe, Andreas Farnleitner, Claudia Kolm | Austria |
| Wastewater surveillance of re-emerging viral and bacterial pathogens for the Public Health Services of the City of Vienna | Gabriela Eder, Vera-Lise Ihm, Maximilian Rumetshofer, Philipp Raunjak, Miklos Papp, Otto Krenek, Jörg Krampe, Julia Vierheilig | Austria |
| Influence of cell concentration on the performance of different DNA extraction approaches for water and wastewater samples | Moritz Pellegrini, Claudia Kolm, Theresa Hohl, Irina Dielacher, Roland Martzy, Michael Ante, Barbara Ströbele, Rita Linke, Jörg Krampe, Andreas Farnleitner, Julia Vierheilig | Austria |
| From pipe to policy: sewer microbiome monitoring for human health | Berna de Vries, Emily Grubb, Andreas Bergthaler, Fabian Amann, Julia Vierheilig | Austria |
| A Novel Hybrid Approach Combining Cultivation-Based and Molecular Techniques for Determining Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Resistance Genes in Wastewater | Alexandra Fobe, Michael Koller, Claudia Kolm, Theresa Hohl, Julia Vierheilig, Barbara Ströbele, Marlene Kalkgruber, Roland Martzy, Michael Ante, Andreas Farnleitner, Gernot Zarfel, Alexander Kirschner | Austria |
| The ARISE project: Pioneering wastewater-based AMR surveillance in alignment with upcoming EU regulatory changes | Theresa Hohl, Julia Vierheilig, Alexander Kirschner, Gernot Zarfel, Barbara Ströbele, Norbert Kreuzinger, Alexandra Fobe, Irina Dielacher, Michael Koller, Mats Leifels, Marlene Kalkgruber, Monika Finsterwald, Georg Zepke, Andrea Manica, Roland Martzy, Michael Ante, Sascha Klee, Uwe Graichen, Reinhild Strauß, Angela Lehner, Julia Weber, Heide Müller-Rechberger, Lia Nykyforuk, Andreas Farnleitner, Claudia Kolm | Austria |
| Occurrence and Key Drivers of Antibiotic Resistance Genes along 2300 km of the Danube River | Alexander Kirschner, Iris Schachner-Groehs, Michael Koller, Claudia Kolm, Rita Linke, Julia Vierheilig, Stoimir Kolarevic, Margareta Kracun-Kolarevic, Wolfgang Kandler, Erika Toth, Clemens Kittinger, Gernot Zarfel, Andreas Farnleitner | Austria |
| Crenothrix polyspora, the "water pest bacterium": Once feared, now nearly forgotten - A rediscovery through a systematic and multiparametric field study | Sophia D. Steinbacher, Mats Leifels, Katarina Priselac, Katalin Demeter, René Mayer, Julia Vierheilig, Wolfgang Kandler, Regina Sommer, Gerhard Lindner, Rita B. Linke, Karen Zuser, Margaret Stevenson, Claudia Kolm, Domenico Savio, Alfred Paul Blaschke, Alexander K. T. Kirschner, Andreas H. Farnleitner | Austria |
| What lies beneath? HEV RNA screening in Belgian Wastewaters to survey hidden shifts in Hepatitis E infections | Noor ul Hudda, Naomi De Roeck, Koenraad Van Hoorde, Steven Van Gucht, Veronik Hutse, Raphael Janssens, Hadrien Maloux, Bavo Verhaegen, Arno Furquim d’Almeida, Michael Peeters, Inge Roukaerts, Marie De Smedt, Thomas Vanwolleghem, Peter Delputte | Belgium |
| First winter season of SARS-CoV-2, influenza and RSV monitoring in Belgian wastewaters | Raphael Janssens, Hadrien Maloux, Marie Lesenfants, Laura Van Poelvoorde, Nancy Roosens, Bavo Verhaegen, Koenraad Van Hoorde, Veronik Hutse | Belgium |
| Molecular methods for pathogen detection and verification from grazed environments | Annastiina Rytkönen, Eveliina Nurmi, Essi Roininen, Anna-Maria Hokajärvi, Marika Laurila, Rauni Kivistö, Tarja Pitkänen | Finland |
| Tracing fecal contamination of recreational water at a bathing site in Helsinki | Rauni Kivistö, Annastiina Rytkönen, Pauliina Tomberg, Sari Front, Heidi Öjst, Tarja Pitkänen | Finland |
| Prevalence of selected fecal pathogens, liver flukes and fecal indicator bacteria in aquatic environments at sheep farms in Finland | Essi Roininen, Rauni Kivistö, Tarja Pitkänen | Finland |
| Wastewater-based surveillance of Antibiotic Resistance Genes: Insights on Public Health and Environmental Risks | Zoi Anastopoulou, Apostolos Vantarakis | Greece |
| Comparative investigation and trends of respiratory viruses using wastewater-based epidemiological surveillance in Patras, Greece | Zoi Anastopoulou, Rafail Fokas, Kalypso Angeliki Koukouvini, Apostolos Vantarakis | Greece |
| Utilizing Wastewater Analysis for Epidemiological Monitoring of Enteric Pathogens | Loretta Varga, Balázs Seres, Eszter Róka, Bernadett Khayer, Márta Vargha, Tamás Pándics | Hungary |
| Selection, characterization and application of DNA aptamers against main waterborne enteric viruses: a promising tool for rapid water quality monitoring. | Leslie Ogorzaly, Arghya Sett, Catherine Mulholland, Cécile Walczak, Delphine Collard, Henry-Michel Cauchie | Luxembourg |
| Ground-based remote sensing and machine learning for rapid automated detection and characterization of harmful cyanobacteria blooms in drinking water supplies. | Jean-Baptiste Burnet, Olivier Parisot, Reza Mofidi Neyestani, Andrea Costantini, Sarah Dorner, Henry-Michel Cauchie | Luxembourg |
| Wastewater-based epidemiological studies on pathogens and their use in public health decision making: a scoping review | Anne-Merel R. van der Drift, Anne Welling, Erwin Nagelkerke, Rudolf F.H.J. van der Beek, Ana Maria de Roda Husman | Netherlands |
| Estimations of the wastewater-based reproduction number | Sjors Stouten, Jantien Backer, Erwin Nagelkerke, Michiel van Boven, Willemijn Lodder, Wouter Hetebrij | Netherlands |
| The importance of monitoring fungi considered critical by the WHO in hospital wastewater | João Brandão, Ana Ascenso, Débora Gil, Pedro Teixeira, Elisabete Valério | Portugal |
In addition to its scientific importance, WaterMicro2025 provided great opportunities for exchange and networking. For some EU-WISH members, it was the first chance to meet in person after so many virtual meetings. These flesh-and-blood encounters added a human dimension to the collaboration, reminding that trust and a shared vision are built through both research and direct, personal interaction.
EU-WISH's strong presence at WaterMicro2025 reflects the consortium’s ongoing commitment to a shared goal of strengthening and improving national capacities for public health surveillance through wastewater monitoring by fostering knowledge exchange.
Thank you to all EU-WISH members who contributed to this successful event; your dedication continues to drive the project forward.
