Influence of environmental factors on the survival of enteric viruses in seawater.

To improve the knowledge of the survival of enteric viruses in a marine env ironment, the influence of physico-chemical parameters (temperature, UV, sa linity) on the survival of infectious poliovirus 1 and hepatitis A Virus (H AV) in seawater was first studied, the influence of suspended solids (SS) o n poliovirus adsorption and survival in seawater was then evaluated and the detection of rotavirus genome in environmental samples (shellfish, river w ater, treated wastewater) was finally investigated. The results show that t emperature has a major impact on virus survival in seawater as the time nec essary to inactivate 90 % of the virus (T-90) is 671 days at 4 degrees C an d only 25 days at 25 degrees C. Ultraviolet light (42 mW s cm(-2)) rapidly inactivates viruses but HAV is more resistant (T-90 = 2.6 min) than the pol iovirus 1 (T-90 = 1.3 min). By contrast, seawater salinity has no effect on virus survival. In presence of SS, 90 % to 99.9 % of the viruses were adso rbed. This adsorption does not provide any protection for viruses with low SS concentrations (3 and 15 mg L-1) but a slight increase in virus survival was observed with a high SS concentration (500 mg L-1). Finally environmen tal sample analysis indicated that 20 % shellfish, about 40 % river water a nd 40 % treated wastewater tested positive for the rotavirus genome. (C) El sevier, Paris.