Round robin investigation of methods for the recovery of poliovirus from drinking water

Abstract

Six laboratories actively involved in water virology research participated in a methods evaluation study, conducted under the auspices of the American Society for Testing and Materials Committee on Viruses in the Aquatic Environment, Task Force on Drinking Water. Each participant was asked to examine the Viradel (virus adsorption-elution) method with cartridge-type Filterite filters for virus adsorption and organic flocculation and aluminum hydroxide-hydroextraction for reconcentration. Virus was adsorbed to filter media at pH 3.5 and eluted with either glycine buffer (pH 10.5) or beef extract-glycine (pHG 9.0). Considerable variation was noted in the quantity of virus recovered from four 100-liter samples of dechlorinated tapwater seeded with low (350 to 860 PFU) and high (1,837 to 4,689 PFU) doses of poliovirus type 1. To have a more uniform standard of comparison, all the test samples were reassayed in one laboratory, where titers were also determined for the virus seed. Test results of the Viradel-organic flocculation method indicated that the average percentage of virus recovery for low-input experiments was 66%, with a range of 8 to 20% in two laboratories, 49 to 63% in three laboratories, and 198% in one laboratory. For the high-input experiments, two laboratories reported recoveries of 6 to 12%, and four laboratories reported recoveries of 26 to 46%. For the Viradel aluminum hydroxide-hydroextraction procedure, two laboratories recovered 9 to 11%, whereas four obtained 17 to 34% for low-input experiments. For the high-input tests, two laboratories reported a recovery of 3 to 5%, and four recovered 11 to 18% of the seeded virus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Processing and transport of environmental virus samples

“…The high-pH glycine elution that had been the recommended procedure for eluting virus-laden cartridge filters (7,15,17) is no longer the method of choice. We subsequently found, as have others (10,14,16), that virus recovery was higher when beef extract was used as the eluent. Temperature was also a significant factor in virus recovery.…”

Humic acid interference with virus recovery by electropositive microporous filters

“…The virus titration experiments also indicated a possible source for some of the variable results obtained in our concentration experiments and in those reported by other laboratories (20). The coefficients of variation (standard deviation/mean) of the virus titers calculated from four experiments ranged from 0.02 to 0.31.…”

An Improved Filter Elution and Cell Culture Assay Procedure for Evaluating Public Groundwater Systems for Culturable Enteroviruses

“…Dahling and Wright (1984) reported that highest recoveries were obtained when 1600 mL of 3% beef extract was passed through the fi lters three times. This was also observed during round robin testing in which fi lters eluted with 3% beef extract yielded higher recoveries than those eluted with high-pH glycine (Melnick et al, 1984). Sobsey and Hickey (1985) used 0.3% beef extract in 50 mM glycine with one pass through the fi lter; Preston et al (1988) used 3% beef extract with 1 M sodium chloride to elute fi lters.…”