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THERMAL AND WATER SOURCE EFFECTS UPON THE STABILITY OF ENTEROVIRUSES IN SURFACE FRESHWATERS
Citation:
Hurst, C., W. Benton, AND K. McClellan. THERMAL AND WATER SOURCE EFFECTS UPON THE STABILITY OF ENTEROVIRUSES IN SURFACE FRESHWATERS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-89/056 (NTIS PB90103466).
Description:
The long-term survival of three human enterovirus serotypes, coxsackievirus B3, echovirus 7, and poliovirus 1 was examined in samples of surface freshwater collected from five sites of physically different character. hese were an artificial lake created by damming a creek, a small groundwater outlet pond, both a large and a medium sized river, and a small suburban creek. urvival was studied at temperatures of -20, +01 and +23 celsius. he average amount of viral inactivation was 6.5 to 7.0 log base 10 units over 8 weeks at +23 C, 4 to 5 log base 10 units over 12 weeks at +01 C, and 0.4 to 0.8 log base 10 units over 12 weeks at -20 C. The effect of incubation temperature upon viral inactivation rate was statistically significant (P <0.00001). s determined by pairing tests, survival was also significantly related to both viral serotype and water source at each of the three incubatlon temperatures (p <0.05). fforts were made to determine whether the rate of viral lnactivation observed at the different incubation temperatures was related to characteristics inherent to the water that was collected from the different locations. The characteristics examined included physical and chemical parameters. Indigenous bacterial counts, and the amount of bacterial growth which the waters would support (measured as the maximum number of generations which seeded bacteria could undergo after being placed into either pasteurized or sterile filtered water samples). nalysis of viral inactivation rate versus these characteristics revealed three apparent affectors of viral persistence. hese were: hardness and conductivity, both of which strongly correlated with one another; turbidity and suspended solids content, both of which strongly correlated with one another; and the number of generations of bacterial growth that a sample was capable of supporting which also correlated with hardness and conductivity.