Occurrence of F-Specific Bacteriophages in Untreated and Treated Wastewaters in Mumbai

• Published in: Indian journal of microbiology Vol. 64; no. 1; pp. 254 - 259
• Main Authors: Menon, Smita, Wani, Hima, Desai, Dipen, Bhathena, Zarine, Desai, Nishith, Shrivastava, Sandhya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Springer India 01.03.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; E coli; Enumeration; Indicators; Life Sciences; Medical Microbiology; Microbiology; Original Research Article; Phages; Statistical analysis; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater treatment plants; Water sampling; Water treatment; Mumbai India; India; F + coliphages; Treatment efficiency; Viral indicator
• ISSN: 0046-8991; 0973-7715
• DOI: 10.1007/s12088-023-01181-7

F + coliphages are considered as potential enteric viral indicators in water systems as a tool for on-site validation of wastewater treatment processes. The present study evaluated the occurrence of F + coliphages in wastewaters collected from three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Mumbai city, to assess this potential. The detection and enumeration of F + coliphages was carried out from WWTPs Z1, Z3 and Z5 using the ISO 10705–1 and U.S EPA 1601 methods. F + coliphages were majorly detected in untreated wastewater samples followed by a few secondary treated samples in WWTP-Z1 and Z3 and one tertiary treated sample from Z1, these differences were found to be statistically significant. The difference in F + coliphage levels between the treatment stages highlight their potential as indicators for monitoring the efficiency of wastewater treatment. The overall positivity of F + coliphage was 35.09% for Salmonella. typhimurium WG49 host (as per ISO 10705–1), was higher by 10.52% for Escherichia coli F amp HS host (as per U.S EPA 1601) (45.61%), highlighting the efficiency of the latter host over the former in F + coliphage detection. Significant difference in F + coliphage counts using the two bacterial hosts were observed in WWTP-Z3 ( p  =  0.001 ) and WWTP-Z1 ( p  =  0.047 ) but not in WWTP-Z5 ( p  =  0.332 ).