DETECTION OF ENTEROVIRUSES AND ADENOVIRUSES IN COASTAL WATERS OF SW GREECE BY NESTED POLYMERASE-CHAIN-REACTION

One hundred and twenty coastal water samples, from twelve different ba thing sites along the Achaia coastline (SW Greece) were analyzed for e nteroviruses and adenoviruses using nested polymerase chain reaction, during a five month period (June-October), in 1995 and 1996. When nest ed PCR was used for detection of enteroviruses, 21 (17.5%) were found positive. On the other hand, using cell culture, only 11 (9.2%) were p ositive for enteroviruses with a mean number of 2.9 PFU/10 l. In addit ion, 34 (28.3%) samples were positive by nested PCR detection for aden oviruses. In half of the sites, both enteroviruses and adenoviruses we re not detected, while in the remaining half of the sites the above me ntioned viruses were periodically detected. Moreover, thirty samples f rom non-bathing areas were also analyzed as reference samples. The com parison between the presence of faecal bacterial indicators and the pr esence of enteroviruses and adenoviruses did not show any significant correlation (P > 0.05). The PCR methodology was found highly successfu l in detecting both viruses in coastal waters of our region. The imple mentation of this molecular technique in laboratories monitoring envir onmental samples, despite the existence of some difficulties is expect ed to resolve some problems of detection of pathogen environmental mic roorganisms. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.