Effectiveness of poliovirus concentration and recovery from treated wastewater by two electropositive filter methods

Enteric viruses are often present in low numbers in various water matrices. Virus sampling therefore involves multiple concentration steps to condense large samples down to small volumes for detection by cell culture or molecular assays. The NanoCeram® Virus Sampler has been demonstrated to be effective for the recovery of viruses from tap water, surface waters, and seawater. The goal of this study was to evaluate a new method using NanoCeram® filters for the recovery of poliovirus 1 (PV-1) from treated wastewater. Activated sludge effluent samples were spiked with PV-1 and concentrated in side-by-side tests by two methods: (1) NanoCeram® filtration, elution with sodium polyphosphate buffer, secondary concentration via centrifugal ultrafiltration; and (2) 1MDS filtration, elution with beef extract, secondary concentration via organic flocculation. The virus retention and elution efficiencies did not differ significantly between the two methods. In contrast, the secondary concentrate volume was smaller for the NanoCeram® method (8.4 vs. 30 mL) and the secondary concentration efficiencies were different between the two methods with 98 % for centrifugal ultrafiltration (NanoCeram® and 45 % for organic flocculation (1MDS). The overall method efficiencies were significantly different (P ≤ 0.05) with the NanoCeram® method yielding a 57 % and the 1MDS a 23 % virus recovery. In addition, there appeared to be less interference with viral detection via polymerase chain reaction with the NanoCeram® concentrates. This NanoCeram® method therefore is able to efficiently recover PV-1 from large volumes of wastewater and may serve as an inexpensive alternative to the standard 1MDS filter method for such applications.