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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center » Environmentally Integrated Dairy Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #304181

Title: Methods for virus recovery in water

Author
item GIBSON, KRISTEN - University Of Arkansas
item Borchardt, Mark

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/10/2014
Publication Date: 6/1/2016
Citation: Gibson, K.E., Borchardt, M.A. 2016. Methods for virus recovery in water. Book Chapter. 978-3-319-30721-3.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Food safety is intimately connected to water sanitary quality as water is used at almost every node in the food production process. Common contaminating pathogens in water are human enteric viruses, many of which are responsible for foodborne disease outbreaks in the United States and other high-income countries. Methods for concentrating viruses from water are diverse and complex, and the task is no less easy for food production water used because of the variety of sources: groundwater wells, ponds, rivers, streams, irrigation ditches, municipal water, reclaimed (treated wastewater) water, and irrigated liquid livestock manure. A range of methods are available to food safety experts for concentrating viruses from water: electropositive filters, electronegative membranes, tangential flow ultrafiltration, and dead-end ultrafiltration. Method selection depends on more than just cost and ease of use as some methods are better suited for particular water types and sampling plans. All methods require a quality control plan in which the performance of the method is documented. While more costly and technical, virus sampling offers several advantages over traditional indicators of water sanitary quality, such as E. coli. Validation of these methods is sufficiently advanced that with appropriate standardization they can be readily applied to ensuring the sanitary quality of water used in food production.