Studies of Procedures for Recovery of Viruses from Activated Sludge

Several elution media were examined to evaluate their suitability for recovering seeded poliovirus 1 from return activated sludge. Although there were no distinct differences of virus recovery efficiency among the media tested, 3% beef extract solution at pH 9 seemed to be the most practical eluent for the recovery of the viruses adsorbed from the sludge with an average recovery efficiency of 21%, with a range of 6.1 to 34%. The organic flocculation procedure using beef extract was applied to concentrate the eluted viruses. Its effect depended on the type of eluate, and viruses were not always concentrated well.