A one-step centrifugal ultrafiltration method to concentrate enteric viruses from wastewater

A one-step centrifugal ultrafiltration method was developed to enhance rapid detection of human enteric viruses and co-occurring viruses in wastewater. Samples were collected pre- and post-UV treatment at two full-scale tertiary municipal wastewater treatment plants in Calgary, Canada. Viruses were concentrated from 100 mL wastewater samples through direct centrifugation using the Centricon Plus-70 ultrafilter. Seven viruses, including norovirus, rotavirus, sapovirus, astrovirus, enterovirus, adenovirus and JC virus, were tested using real-time quantitative PCR (rt-qPCR) and cell culture. All of the viruses were detected in pre- and post-UV samples by rt-qPCR, with rotavirus the most numerous (6.6 log(10) GE copies/L). Infectious viruses, by cell culture, were found in all tested pre-UV samples but only in one post-UV sample. The results were comparable and consistent to that obtained using virus adsorption elution method, indicating that the centrifugal ultrafiltration method is adequate to retain the viruses and maintain their infectivity during processing. As a simple, rapid and cost-effective method to screen wastewater viruses, this one-step centrifugal ultrafiltration method may serve as an effective approach to assess virus removal and gain knowledge of human virus activity during wastewater treatment. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.