Validation of an ultrafiltration process to concentrate viruses from large volumes of water

Abstract
The efficiency of seeded poliovirus and echovirus recovery from 20 litres of tap water was evaluated using a molecular ultrafiltration system. The experiments were performed using a 5μm polypropylene prefilter and two polysulfonate membranes of 105 nominal molecular weight limit. No loss of virus was observed after prefiltration. More than 96% of poliovirus were recovered after elution at pH 10.5 and 83% of echovirus after elution at pH 8.5.