title: The use of F-specific coliphages to assess effluent treatment and reuse schemes.
abstract: This study reports on the use of naturally occurring F-specific coliphages, as well as spiked MS-2 phage, to evaluate a land-based effluent treatment/reuse system and an effluent irrigation scheme. Both the natural phages and the spiked MS-2 phage indicated that the effluent treatment/reuse system (FILTER - Filtration and Irrigated cropping for Land Treatment and Effluent Reuse) achieved a reduction in phage levels over the treatment system by one to two log10. FILTER reduced natural F-specific phage numbers from around 10(3) to below 10(2) 100-ml(-1) and the spiked phage from 10(5) to around 10(4) 100-ml(-1) (incoming compared with outgoing water). In the effluent irrigation scheme, phage spiked into the holding ponds dropped from 10(6) to 10(2) 100-ml(-1) after 168 h (with no detectable levels of natural F-specific phage being found prior to spiking). Only low levels of the spiked phage (10(2) gm(-1)) could be recovered from soil irrigated with phage-spiked effluent (at 10(6) phage 100 ml(-1)) or from fruits (around 10(2) phage per fruit) that had direct contact with soil which had been freshly irrigated with the same phage-spiked effluent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Animal Research Institute, Locked Mail Bag No 4, Moorooka, Qld 4105, Australia.
authors.forename: H N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Chinivasagam
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sands
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Blackall
mesh_terms: D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D005374:Filtration / Q000379:methods; D005638:Fruit / Q000821:virology; D017909:Levivirus / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000254:growth & development / Q000821:virology; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014871:Water Microbiology; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*