Abstract

VILLAMIZAR-G, Raquel Amanda; ORTIZ-R, Oscar O  and  AQUILES-DARGHAN, Enrique. Quick and easy methodology to determine somatic coliphages as indicators of fecal contamination in a water treatment plant located in northeastern Colombia. Univ. Salud [online]. 2015, vol.17, n.1, pp.57-68. ISSN 0124-7107.

Introduction: In this article a quick and simple method is proposed to determine somatic coliphages in the different stages of water treatment in a plant in the northeast of Colombia, in order to verify the quality of the treatment process. Materials and methods: The technique of membrane filtration was used to get the phage content and subsequently through the methodology of single layer using tryptic soy agar modified, the presence of the virus was quantified. Results: 88% of the water samples analyzed were found to be positive in any of the stages of purification. The presence of phages increased during the rainy season with maximum counts of 1310 UFP/100 mL at the stage of uptake of water and 2.5 UFP/100 mL in the chlorination stage. Non-parampetrica Chi square homogeneous distribution test confirmed statistically equal distribution of positive samples found in each of the stages of purification (p> 5%) because the sample was determined by indicator. Conclusion: The methodology allowed to determine the presence of somatic coliphages at different stages of water treatment in the plant under study in only 12 hours. In addition, the high resistance of these natural nanomachines to the processes of disinfection was found, which showed persistence in warehousing and distribution stages, especially in the rainy season.

Keywords : Water; water purification; bacteria; coliforms; coliphages.

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