Evaluation of Methods for Extraction of Enteric Virus from Louisiana Oysters.

Six techniques were evaluated for recovery of poliovirus from Louisiana oysters. The methods were compared for percent recovery rates, toxicity, ease of extraction, bacterial contamination, and final volume of oyster concentrate. Oyster samples were contaminated with 30-40 plaque forming units of Poliovirus type 1 and processed by six variations of adsorption-elution-precipitation and elution-precipitation methods. The method developed by Ellender et al. (Natural enterovirus and fecal coliform contamination of gulf coast oysters. J. Food Prot. 43:105-110) was judged to be the preferred method for gulf coast oysters.