Comparative movement of different enteroviruses in soil columns

Echo 1 and Echo 29, the least adsorptive viruses studied in previous batch studies with small soil samples, and Polio 1 were seeded in secondary sewage effluent that was applied to 250-cm-long soil columns. Water samples from various column depths showed that the adsorption patterns for Echo 29 and Polio 1 were quite similar. Fewer Echo 1 viruses were adsorbed near the soil surface, bu the leaching pattern below the 40-cm depth resembled that for Polio 1 and Echo 29. The leaching patterns of Echo 1 and Polio 1 were influenced in a similar manner by changes in virus concentration, and flow velocity and leaching patterns were similar for three other soils with a wide range in virus-retention efficiencies. These tests and previous experiments on virus adsorption and survival suggest that movement of polioviruses type 1 through soils is similar to the movement of many other enteroviruses through soils. Virus movement through loamy sand roughly paralleled that of fecal coliforms.