Alternative surrogates and testing protocol for point-of-use water treatment device field efficacy testing

基于实验室的使用点（POU）水处理设备的功效测试通常用于验证其保护能力方面的性能（即目标生物的对数减少多少）。为此，在控制良好的环境中，按照行业接受的协议，对替代物的靶生物进行挑战测试。由于其分散性，POU水处理设备由最终用户操作。据认为，这可能是此类设备的现场性能可能不如实验室测试好的原因之一。这是基于报告合规结果的实地研究（即最终水质）。然而，目前尚不清楚它们的保护能力是否有任何丧失，因为目前还没有在POU进行有效性测试的现场方案。本项目旨在通过测试在实地测试方案中使用的充足替代非致病性替代品来解决这一问题，该方案也将由本项目制定。如果成功，这将使工业合作伙伴能够从现场接收到有关其产品性能的有价值的信息，从而改进服务的交付（例如如何正确操作和维护设备的培训）。

Lab-based efficacy testing of point-of-use (POU) water treatment devices are typically used to validate theirperformances with regard to the protective capacity (i.e. how many log reductions of target organisms). To thisend, challenge testing with target organisms of surrogates is conducted in well-controlled environmentsfollowing industry-accepted protocols. Due to their decentralised nature, POU water treatment devices areoperated by end-users. It is thought that this may be one of the reasons that the field performance of suchdevices may not be as good as the lab tests. This is based on field studies reporting compliance results (i.e. finalwater quality). Yet, there is no knowledge of whether there is any loss of their protective capacity, as there iscurrently no field-based protocol for efficacy testing at the POU. This project seeks to address this by testingthe adequacy alternative non-pathogenic surrogates to be used in a field-based testing protocol also to bedeveloped by this project. If successful, this will allow the industrial partner to receive valuable informationfrom the field with regard to the performance of their product, leading to an improved delivery of service (e.g.training on how to properly operate and maintain the devices).