COMPARATIVE SURVIVAL OF HEPATITIS-A VIRUS, POLIOVIRUS AND INDICATOR VIRUSES IN GEOGRAPHICALLY DIVERSE SEAWATERS

The presence and persistence of enteric viruses in sewage contaminated seawater is an important public health concern for bathing, surfing a nd shellfishing. In an effort to find suitable indicators of enteric v iruses in seawater, we compared the survival of two groups of enteric bacteriophages, F-specific coliphages (FRNA phages) and somatic Salmon ella bacteriophages (SS phages), to the survival of two human enteric viruses,. hepatitis A virus (HAV) and poliovirus type 1 (PV-1), in coa stal seawater from three geographic areas (So. California, Hawaii, and North Carolina) at 20 degrees C. Concentrations of all four viruses d ecreased over 30 days from their initial titers and there was little d ifference in the survival of a particular virus among the three seawat ers. However, the extent of reduction varied among the four viruses. S urvival was greater for the SS phages than for any of the other viruse s, with an estimated 4 log(10) reduction time of about 10 weeks. FRNA phages and PV-1 were inactivated rapidly, with 4 log(10) reductions in similar to 1 week. HAV reductions were intermediate between SS phages and FRNA phages, with 4 log(10) reductions in about 4 weeks. The obse rved differences in virus survival suggest that SS phages are more per sistent in seawater than other viruses and hence may be good indicator s for enteric viruses in seawater.