Survival of F-RNA coliphages and three bacterial indicators during wastewater chlorination and transport in estuarine waters

Three bacterial water quality indicators, Clostridium perfringens, enterococci, and fecal coliforms, were compared to F-RNA coliphages for their survival during chlorination at several municipal wastewater treatment plants in Rhode Island and seasonally during transport in a section of the Narragansett Bay estuary. F-RNA coliphages were used as the best available indicator for the survival of Noroviruses (formerly Norwalk-like virus), the most frequently identified agent for the most prevalent waterborne disease (an acute but benign gastroenteritis), which has yet to be propagated in tissue culture and for which there is no lower animal model. Inactivation of the enterococci and fecal coliforms during wastewater chlorination was much greater than that of the F-RNA coliphages whose inactivation was essentially the same as that of C perfringens. Survival of the F-RNA coliphages and C perfringens during winter transport down Narragansett Bay were comparable to each other and greater than that for the enterococci or fecal coliforms. During the summer, C perfringens survived longer than the other three indicators, possibly because the virus-like (F-RNA coliphages) and the two vegetative bacterial indicators were more susceptible than the C perfringens spores to the lethal effects of sunlight and elevated water temperatures during the summer. Based on these findings, F-RNA coliphages seems to be a reliable indicator of viral contamination and die-off in estuarine waters.