Identification of enteric viruses from raw water using fluoro-immuno-magnetic separation coupled to RT-PCR

INTRODUCTION: Enteric viruses have been associated with the production of a variety of diseases transmitted by the fecal-oral route and carried through contaminated food and water. Given their structure and composition, they are highly resistant to environmental conditions and most of the chemical agents used in the purification processes. Therefore, the systematic monitoring of raw water is necessary to ensure its quality especially when it is used for producing drinking water for human consumption. OBJECTIVE: We identifed the presence of rotavirus and hepatitis A virus by means of the fluoro-immuno-magnetic separation technique (FIMS) in raw water taken from four purification plants and their water supplies in the department of Norte de Santander. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The viruses were captured and separated from the water samples using magnetic microparticles functionalized with monoclonal anti-Hepatitis A and antiRotavirus antibodies. Confocal microscopy was used to monitor the viral concentration process and transmission electron microscopy for the morphological visualization of the separated viruses. The reverse transcriptase-coupled polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was applied to confrm the presence of pathogens. RESULTS: The two enteric viruses were identifed in the majority of the analyzed water samples including water supply sources. CONCLUSION: We determined that the FIMS technique together with RT-PCR is highly effective for the detection of viral pathogens in complex matrices such as raw water.