Effects of different sampling solutions on the survival of bacteriophages in bubbling aeration

Abstract

The present study focuses on the effects of three different sampling solutions, namely distilled water, phosphatic buffer solution, and suspension medium (SM), adding antifoam or not, on the survival probability of several different bacteriophages (EcP1,PhiX174,SM702, and F2) as surrogates for the mammalian viruses in the bubbling process. AGI-10 impinger was used as the representative for all the impingers which would bubble during operation. It was found that the survival probability of the same bacteriophage bubbling with different sampling solutions was different except that there was no significant difference observed for the bacteriophage F2. The use of SM as the collection fluid was relative to a high survival probability for the four bacteriophages. And the endurance or resistance of different kinds of bacteriophages in the same sampling solution was different. We conclude that SM is a promising sampling solution for liquid impingers in the process of sampling phages. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.