Comparison of nucleic acid extraction and reverse transcription-qPCR approaches for detection of GI and GII noroviruses in drinking water.

•We compared three molecular based approaches for norovirus detection in water.•Each approach was evaluated based on performance, cost, and analysis time.•We observed few significant differences between approaches in terms of performance.•One approach was substantially more time consuming and expensive to perform.•Knowledge of these features is key when considering implementation of PCR analyses.