Techniques for virus detection in aquatic sediments.

Laboratory experiments have been undertaken to study the adsorption-desorption of poliovirus to and from marine and freshwater sediments. It was observed that marine sediments retained 99% of added virus, whereas, freshwater sediments adsorbed approximately 40% of the added virus. Ten eluents were investigated for their ability to desorb viruses from a marine sediment. It was found that virus elution from the marine sediment was relatively low and ranged from less than 1% to 44%. Two eluents, urea-lysine and TCA-glycine at pH 9.0, were found to be the most efficient among the eluents tested. Viruses were more easily released from freshwater than from marine sediments. When urea-lysine, beef extract and purified casein were used as eluents, the overall virus recovery ranged from 8% to 22% for the marine sediment and from 23% to 59% for the freshwater sediments. The urea-lysine methods was used for the detection of indigenous enteroviruses in sediments from a closed shellfish bed. Enteroviruses were recovered with concentrations up to 708 TCID50/50 g of sediment.