Detection of pest and vermin in urban area using urban drainage system

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21985
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 22:Civil engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Nakajima Fumiyuki 東京大学, 環境安全研究センター, 教授 (30292890)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 飛野 智宏 東京大学, 大学院工学系研究科(工学部), 講師 (90624916) ; 清 和成 北里大学, 医療衛生学部, 教授 (80324177)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 衛生害虫 / 衛生害獣 / 雨水排除 / 環境DNA

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Efficient methods of detecting the hidden animals in urban area are indispensable to take proactive measures before damage occurs. We hypothesized that urban runoff water may contain the traces of such hidden animals inhabiting in the urban catchment.
The objective of this study is to test the hypothesis by determining the recovery rate of such hidden animal's DNA from the simulated urban runoff with the mixture of soil and the trace samples. DNA content in the trace samples from the test animals (rodents and mosquitos) were quantified. The rodent DNA was detected in the laboratory-simulated runoff water as we hypothesized, but the low recovery indicates that the rodent feces mostly settled with soils. The rodent hair had a higher recovery rate in the runoff water than the feces.

Free Research Field

都市環境工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

げっ歯類（ラットおよびマウス）、蚊、住血吸虫中間宿主貝の痕跡を水中から検出する方法を検討し、環境調査に用いるために必須の重量当たりの遺伝子コピー数を定量した。げっ歯類については、糞および体毛の流出特性を実験的に明らかにし、体毛の回収の有効性が示唆される結果が得られた。また、住血吸虫中間宿主貝については水中に放出されるRNAにより、より時間解像度の高い解析ができることが示唆され、新たな研究課題に展開している。