Presence of viral genomes in mineral water: a sufficient condition to assume infectious risk?

Appropriate interpretation of a positive reverse transcription-PCR is an important issue for virus-related health hazard assessment because viral genomes and infectious viruses exhibit different behavior patterns in water. In this context, using Poliovirus 1 and Feline calicivirus f9 as examples of enteric viruses, first we demonstrated that the stability of infectious viruses is greatly affected by the temperature of mineral water (10, 20, and 35 degrees C) and that, in contrast, temperature has little effect on the corresponding genomes. Second, we demonstrated that infectious particles are degraded more rapidly than viral genomes at all temperatures studied.

Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli bacteriophages in human faeces.

Some bacteriophages found in human faeces are being evaluated as possible indicators of viral contamination of water. These bacteriophages include somatic coliphages and Bacteroides fragilis phages. The aims of this study were to determine the occurrence and concentrations of somatic coliphages and Bacteroides fragilis phages in the stools of a human population residing in eastern France (n = 193).