ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the most promising and extensively used methods for virus concentration from water. Concentration of viruses from water is not achieved simply by an application of methods; it is a strategy in which the types of viruses that must be isolated, the nature of those viruses, and their interaction with their environment are taken into consideration. The first attempts at recovering viruses from water employed adsorption to gauze pads. In this method, a sterile gauze pad or sanitary napkin is suspended in flowing water for several days to allow virus particles to accumulate. Efficiency of virus concentration is often less from sewage compared with tapwater. Fortunately, large volumes of sewage do not normally have to be processed to detect viruses. Zeta-plus filters have also been useful for concentrating enteric viruses from sewage effluents. Two-phase separation has been used to concentrate viruses from sewage effluents and tapwater and in the reconcentration of eluates from filters.
