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Concentration of MS2 phage in river water by a combined ferric colloid adsorption and foam separation-based method,
Yoshihiro Suzuki1, Takumi Kobayashi1, Masateru Nishiyama2
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Miyazaki, 1-1 Gakuen Kibanadai-Nishi, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan.
Abstract:
The concentration of MS2 phage as a model RNA virus in river water using a combined ferric colloid adsorption and foam separation-based method was examined. The MS2 phage concentrations were determined by the plaque-forming unit (PFU) method and reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis. When ferric colloid adsorption was performed prior to foam separation, MS2 phage was effectively removed from river water and concentrated in the generated foam within 7 min. The removal efficiency was >99% at the optimum iron and casein concentrations of 5 mg-Fe/L and 10 mg/L, respectively. Furthermore, based on the analysis of the collected ferric colloid dissolved using deferoxamine, the MS2 concentration in the colloid-dissolved solution was 190-fold higher than that found in raw water according to RT-qPCR analysis. This is a novel method for concentrating RNA viruses to facilitate their detection in river water using coagulation and foam separation combined with chelate dissolution of ferric flocs.
