DETECTION OF VIRUSES IN ENVIRONMENTAL-SAMPLES - SUITABILITY OF COMMERCIAL ROTAVIRUS AND ADENOVIRUS TEST KITS

Commercially marketed kits are now available for rapid viral assay of clinical specimens. This study was conducted to determine the suitabil ity of these kits for use in environmental testing. Eight rotavirus ki ts and one enteric adenovirus kit were screened for sensitivity using simian rotavirus SA11, human rotavirus Wa, and adenovirus 41. The most sensitive rotavirus kit and the adenovirus kit were selected for furt her evaluation using virus-seeded and unseeded sewage samples. The sel ected rotavirus kit proved capable of detecting virus at the 10(1) PFU /ml level. The enteric adenovirus kit was similarly sensitive, detecti ng virus at the 10(1) TCID50/ml level. Neither kit was adversely affec ted by the presence of sewage. Kit assay revealed 3 of 30 unseeded sew age samples to be positive for rotavirus. Adenovirus positive samples were not detected among the 30 samples. These results were confirmed u sing electron microscopy. It was concluded that sensitive commercial k its could provide a reasonable alternative to cell culture for the pre sumptive testing of environmental samples.