Quantitative PCR for cannabis flower containing SARs-CoV-2

Abstract

In January of 2020, COVID-19 became a worldwide pandemic. As many industries shutdown to comply with social distancing measures, the cannabis industry was deemed an essential business in most U.S. jurisdictions. Cannabis is manually farmed, trimmed and packaged. Employees and trimmers in cannabis grows have been reported to test qPCR positive for SARs-CoV-2 and as a result cannabis flower can be a potential inhaled SARs-CoV-2 fomite. Many of the comorbidities described in COVID-19 are also qualifying conditions for medical cannabis access. Bat guano has been identified as a rich source for novel coronavirus discovery and it is also a common fertilizer in the cannabis field. To better assess cannabis fomite risk we developed a SARs-CoV-2 quantitative PCR assay optimized to operate with a hemp flower background matrix. This assay was utilized to estimate the stability of gamma irradiated SARs-CoV-2 as a hemp flower fomite.