Attachment of enteric viruses to bottles

Area of Science:

• Environmental microbiology
• Water quality analysis
• Virology

Background:

• Storage of enteric viruses in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles leads to a decrease in apparent viral load.
• This decrease complicates the evaluation of viral detection methods for bottled water.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if viral load decrease is due to inactivation or adhesion to PET bottle walls.
• To develop and validate a method for quantifying adsorbed enteric viruses on PET bottles.

Main Methods:

• Developed an elution protocol to recover adsorbed viruses from PET bottle walls.
• Combined elution with a sensitive real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) method.
• Quantified adsorption of norovirus (NV), hepatitis A virus (HAV), and rotavirus (RV) on PET bottles over time.

Main Results:

• High percentages of NV (85-95%), HAV (90%), and RV (80%) adsorbed to PET bottle walls after storage.
• NV and RV attachment depended on autochthonous flora; HAV adsorption was independent.
• No enteric viruses were detected in 294 commercial bottled water samples using the developed protocol.

Conclusions:

• Enteric viruses can adsorb significantly to PET bottles, impacting viral load measurements.
• Bottled water sources are likely free from enteric viruses, and bottled water is not a common vehicle for viral diseases.
• The developed elution and RT-PCR method is effective for detecting adsorbed viruses on PET bottles.