Shellfish responsible of enteric viruses transmission

Enteric viruses can be transmitted by mussels. Among me enteric viruses, th e enteroviruses, the calicivirus and the hepatitis A virus represent an imp ortant public health problem. Enteric viruses and especially HAV are more resistant than bacteria to comm on sewage treatment and are able to survive for a long time in seawater. The AA studied a screening method of RT-nested-PCR for determining viral co ntamination of mussels. The experiments were carried out - using mussels co llected from Adriatic Sea - to determine the following parameters: E. coli, enteroviruses and HAV. To confirm the infectivity of viruses the cell colture inoculation with pos itive samples was performed. The results show the presence of viral contamination in 41.7% of mussel sam ples and confirm the absence of correlation among E. coli and enteric virus es.