Techniques for the recovery of enteric viruses from artificially contaminated marine sediments

Viruses are an important component of aquatic microbial communities and marine sediments may represent an optimal means for their survival. The aim of this study was to evaluate different methods for virus recovery from marine sediments. Three methods were used for virus recovery from artificially contaminated sediments: elution and centrifugation technique, sonication technique, and mechanical disgregation followed by elution and centrifuge technique. The sonication technique obtained the highest virus recovery percentages (94,25%). Eluent 2 provided more efficient recovery of enteric viruses than eluent 1 presumably due to the presence, in eluent 2, of NANO3, a chaotropic agent that enhances the solubilization of hydrophobic compounds in water. Finally, the authors confirm the importance of searching for viruses in sediments, which protect them from inactivation by biological, chemical and physical factors and allow them to survive longer than in the overlaying water column.