Adsorption-Elution Techniques and Molecular Detection of Enteric Viruses from Water

It is generally accepted by municipalities and public health authorities that monitoring microbial water quality is performed by enumerating faecal coliforms. These bacterial indicators of faecal contamination are used because of the assumption that they have the same behaviour in the water as enteric pathogens, which is not true with regards to viruses. Therefore, there is need for a supplementary viral indicator or to directly detect viruses from water. Detection of viruses in water is complicated because of occurrence of viruses in low numbers. There is need for concentration of the viruses from large volumes water to aliquots that can be used in PCR or cell culture. We present the adsorption-elution techniques for the recovery and concentration of enteric viruses from water and subsequent detection by quantitative real time RT-PCR/PCR.