GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES FINAL ORAL EXAMINATION

Transcription

1 GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES MCGILL UNIVERSITY FINAL ORAL EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF DIVYA GUPTA DEPARTMENT OF BIORESOURCE ENGINEERING ASSESSMENT OF IRRIGATION WATER QUALITY FOR THE QUEBEC HORTICULTURE INDUSTRY 5 th April, :00 PM MACDONALD-STEWART BUILDING, ROOM MS2-084 McGill University, Macdonald Campus COMMITTEE: Dr. A. Jardim (Pro-Dean) (Department of Parasitology) Dr. V. Orsat (Chair) (Department of Bioresource Engineering) Dr. C.A. Madramootoo (Supervisor) (Department of Bioresource Engineering) Dr. S.P. Faucher (Internal Examiner) (Department of Natural Resource Sciences) Dr. M. Ngadi (Internal Member) (Department of Bioresource Engineering) Dr. S. Bayen (External Member) (Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry) Dr. Josephine Nalbantoglu, Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Members of the Faculty and Graduate Students are invited to attend

2 ABSTRACT Ready-to-eat vegetables when irrigated with untreated surface water cause risk of gastrointestinal infection to humans. Greenhouse and field studies were conducted to quantify Escherichia coli in the irrigation water and vegetables irrigated with untreated water. The Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) model used data from the greenhouse and field studies to estimate the health risk to humans on the consumption of irrigated fresh fruits and vegetables. The field study analyzed pathogenic E. coli in the irrigation water during the May-October growing seasons in 2013 and 2014 from two field sites, St-Remi and Rougemont in Quebec. In Rougemont, the maximum concentration of E. coli was found during the May-June period for both years. Whereas in St-Remi, the maximum E. coli concentration was found during the May-June and the September-October. The greenhouse study was conducted in controlled environmental conditions at the Macdonald campus to confirm the level of contamination that was transferred to fruits and soil over a 30 days time period. The application of E. coli contaminated irrigation water resulted in the contamination of vegetables and of soil using four different treatments. The highest risk for lettuce was observed in the Sprinkler+Organic treatment, followed by the Sprinkler+Mineral and the Drip+Organic treatments, but risk with the Drip+Mineral treatment was observed only on the 20 th day. There was a risk observed in tomatoes only on the 10 th day in the Drip+Organic treatment. The QMRA model used data from field experiments and the combined annual disease burden for all the pathogens was found in the range of 10-3 to 10-2 DALYs for lettuce and tomatoes. Whereas, the combined gastrointestinal (GI) risk was in the range of 10-2 to 10-1 and 10-3 to 10-1 for lettuce and tomatoes respectively. Comparison of the models used for vegetables, showed that lettuce consumption would result in higher risk because ranges are greater compared to tomato consumption. Another QMRA study was conducted using data from St-Esprit, Quebec, to confirm the quantified gastrointestinal risks when crops were irrigated with untreated surface water. Drip irrigation showed less risk (1.8 X10-8 to 3.9 X10-4 DALYs) than sprinkler irrigation (9.8 X10-8 to 2.1 X10-3 DALYs) across all scenarios. Washing fresh vegetables for 2 min showed the least risk ( DALYs) as compared to washing vegetables for 3-4 sec ( DALYs) and to no washing ( DALYs). Among five vegetables, lettuce showed the highest risk compared to tomatoes, squash (zucchini), cauliflower and broccoli. Therefore, it is recommended to wash fresh vegetables for 2 min prior to consumption; and use drip irrigation and mineral soil to grow the vegetables to be eaten raw.

3 CURRICULUM VITAE UNIVERSITY EDUCATION SEPT 2012-PRESENT PHD IN BIORESOURCE ENGINEERING M.SC IN WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT TERI UNIVERSITY, INDIA JAN- MAY 2011 MAY-JULY 2010 M.SC THESIS PROJECT YALE UNIVERSITY, U.S.A. M.SC INTERNSHIP PROJECT INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DELHI (IITD), INDIA B.SC IN MICROBIOLOGY (H) DELHI UNIVERSITY, INDIA EMPLOYMENT OSD CHIEF INVIGILATOR AND OSD INVIGILATOR MAC IT TECH SERVICE SUPPORT TEACHING ASSISTANT MAC REGULAR EXAM INVIGILATOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE THE ENERGY AND RESOURCES INSTITUTE (TERI), INDIA AWARDS FEB 2017 MCGILL MAC GOLD KEY AWARD MAX BELL FOUNDATION AWARD MCGILL GRADUATE RESEARCH ENHANCEMENT AND TRAVEL (GREAT) AWARD-BIORESOURCE ENGINEERING

4 MCGILL GRADUATE EXCELLENCE AWARD- BIORESOURCE ENGINEERING FONDS DE RECHERCHE DU QUÉBEC - NATURE ET TECHNOLOGIES (FRQNT) SCHOLARSHIP FEB 2012 JAN-MAY 2011 RECIPIENT OF GOLD MEDAL AND ACADEMIC DISTINCTION FOR M.SC V K RASMUSSEN FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP AS A PART OF TERI-YALE COLLABORATION PUBLICATIONS Refereed Journal Articles: 1. Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. (2017) Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) model associated with the consumption of contaminated lettuce and tomatoes grown in the greenhouse and at two field sites. Water Science & Technology (to be submitted). 2. Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. (2017) Scenario analysis study using Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) for the consumption of ready-to-eat (RTE) vegetables. Water Research (to be submitted) 3. Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. (2017) Fate and Transport of Escherichia coli in Tomato Production. Exposure and Health 9(1): Available at doi: /s Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. (2016) Escherichia coli contamination on Ready-To-Eat (RTE), Lettuce. Exposure and Health pp Available at doi: /s Joshi, N., Gupta, D., Suryavanshi, S., Adamowski, J. and Madramootoo, C.A. (2016) Analysis of trends and dominant periodicities in drought variables in India: A wavelet

5 transform based approach. Atmospheric Research 182, Sharma, S., A. Goel, D. Gupta, A. Kumar, A. Mishra, S. Kundu, S. Chatani and Z. Klimont (2015) "Emission inventory of non-methane volatile organic compounds from anthropogenic sources in India." Atmospheric Environment 102(0): Samal, C. G., D. Gupta, R. Pathania, S. Mohan and R. Suresh (2013) "Air pollution in micro-environments: A case study of India Habitat Centre enclosed vehicular parking, New Delhi." Indoor and Built Environment 22(4): Conference Proceedings 1. Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. Contamination of Ready-To-Eat vegetables grown in greenhouse with different soil types and irrigation methods. Oral Presentation in 2016 at CWRA-ACRH 69 th Conference, Montreal, May 25-27, Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. Escherichia coli contamination on Ready-To-Eat (RTE) vegetables. Oral Presentation in 2015 at CSBE-SCGAB Annual General Meeting and Technical Conference, Edmonton, July 5-8, Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. Microbiological Contamination of Irrigation water and Ready-To-Eat (RTE) vegetables. Poster presentation in 2015 at ASABE Annual International Meeting, Louisiana, July 26-29, Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. Escherichia coli contamination on Ready-To-Eat (RTE) vegetables. Poster Presentation in 2015 at McGill Global Food Security Conference, Montreal, October 27-28, 2015.

6 5. Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. Microbiological Contamination of Irrigation Water Supplies. Poster presentation in 2014 at NABEC Conference, University of Guelph, Kemptville, Ontario, July 27-30, Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. Microbiological Contamination of Irrigation Water Supplies. Oral presentation in 2014 at ASABE Annual International Meeting, Montreal, July 13-16, Gupta, D. and Madramootoo, C.A. Minimizing Foodborne Outbreaks from Contaminated Irrigation Water. Poster presentation in 2013 at Canadian Water Network (CWN) Conference, Ottawa, March 18-21, 2013.