Concentration of coliphages from large volumes of water and wastewater

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Abstract
Membrane filter adsorption-elution technology is extensively used for the concentration and detection of animal viruses from large volumes of water. The development of positively-charged microporous filters (Zeta Plus) for the concentration of coliphages from large volumes of water and wastewater was described. Four different coliphages were studied: MS2, .vphi.X174, T2 and T4. Positively-charged microporous filters efficiently adsorbed these coliphages from tap water, sewage and lake water at neutral pH. Adsorbed viruses were eluted with a 1:1 mixture of 8% beef extract and 1 M NaCl at pH 9. Using this method, coliphages could be concentrated from 17-l volumes of tap water with recoveries of 34-100%. Coliphages occurring naturally in raw and secondarily treated sewage were recovered with average efficiencies of 56.5 and 55.0%, respectively. This method should be useful in isolation of rare phages, the ecology of phages in natural waters and the evaluation of water quality.