Havelaar A H
Laboratory for Water- and Food Microbiology, National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Hygiene, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Vet Q. 1987 Oct;9(4):356-60. doi: 10.1080/01652176.1987.9694125.
Water can be a vector of viral disease, but direct virological analysis of water has logistic and practical limitations. Viruses of major importance for water hygiene (e.g. hepatitis and gastro-enteritis viruses) cannot yet be grown in tissue culture. Therefore, as in bacteriological quality procedures, model organisms are required for the evaluation of virological quality of water and the effectiveness of virus removal by water treatment processes. On the basis of published information, the F specific RNA (FRNA) phages have been chosen for this purpose. For the enumeration of the phages a particular Salmonella typhimurium strain with an artificially introduced F plasmid was developed as a host strain and was found to give accurate and reliable results. FRNA phages were found in very high numbers (10(2)-10(5) pfu/ml) in all types of waste water investigated. FRNA phages are seldom found in non-faecally contaminated waste water. Surprisingly low numbers are found in faeces. FRNA phages in waste water effluent were found to be highly resistant to chloramines and relatively resistant to UV inactivation. The FRNA phages can thus effectively be used as indicator organisms for human pathogenic viruses in the evaluation of disinfection processes for water treatment plants.
水可能是病毒性疾病的传播媒介，但对水进行直接病毒学分析存在后勤和实际方面的限制。对水卫生至关重要的病毒（如肝炎病毒和肠胃炎病毒）目前仍无法在组织培养中生长。因此，与细菌学质量检测程序一样，需要使用模式生物来评估水的病毒学质量以及水处理过程中病毒去除的效果。根据已发表的信息，为此选择了F特异性RNA（FRNA）噬菌体。为了对噬菌体进行计数，开发了一种带有人工引入F质粒的特定鼠伤寒沙门氏菌菌株作为宿主菌株，并发现其能给出准确可靠的结果。在所研究的各类废水中均发现了数量极多的FRNA噬菌体（10² - 10⁵ 噬菌斑形成单位/毫升）。在未受粪便污染的废水中很少发现FRNA噬菌体。令人惊讶的是，在粪便中发现的数量也很低。研究发现，废水排放中的FRNA噬菌体对氯胺具有高度抗性，对紫外线灭活相对抗性较强。因此，在评估水处理厂的消毒过程时，FRNA噬菌体可有效地用作人类致病病毒的指示生物。
