A new portable virus concentrator for use in the field

A new portable apparatus is described which is usable in the field to concentrate large volumes of environmental water for laboratory purposes. The portable virus concentrator consists of four parts: a sampling unit including a programmable peristaltic pump; a 5 μm prefiltration unit; an ultrafiltration system; and a physicochemical measure area. The ultrafiltration system includes 105 NMWL polysulfonate membranes, is performed at the natural pH of water and is followed by an elution step. By this technique, more than 60 l are concentrated in an hour and the recovery of three types of concentrates is observed: parasites are retained in the prefiltrate; bacteria and 80% of viruses are recovered in the concentrates.