OCCURENCE OF VIRUSES IN US GROUNDWATERS

Ground Water Rule (GWR,2000) is used for development of recent advances in the molecular methods to determine infective viruses, viral nucleic acid, bacteriophages and bacteria. Microbial occurrence results are made on 448 sites in 35 states of USA. Presentation of material and methods with sample collection and cell culture assay. Reverse transcriptase-PCR method and primers for virus detection is discussed. Virus cell culture assays and comparative results are analyzed with a classification efficiency for low- and high-risk wells for the calibration data set using all the microbial results to identify risk type. Application to source sewage distance for cell culture and Reverse Transcriptase- Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) positive sites. Comparison of samples collected at each geology deposit , depth of the wells and seasonal trends for positive cultural methods. Sample temperature trends for cell culture and enterovirus polymerase chain reaction-positive samples are given.