The stability of bovine parvovirus and its possible use as an indicator for the persistence of enteric viruses

Bovine parvovirus 1 (Haden virus) gives with grown in 0–24 h secondary cultures of calf kidney a pronounced CPE. The virus is very thermoresistant, it takes e.g. at 60°C 6 h to decrease the titer of infectivity 1 log unit.When seeded in liquid manure the virus becomes inactivated at a rate of around 6–8 days for 1 log unit under aerobic conditions at 5–20°C. The inactivation under anaerobic conditions is very temperature dependent: at 5°C it takes about 200 days to decrease the titer 1 log unit, but at 20°C a rate of inactivation of 20 days per log unit of virus was found.It is suggested that the bovine parvoviruses may be useful as indicators in connection with evaluations of the importance of viral bovine faecal pollution. For evaluations of treatment efficiencies it is suggested that these parvoviruses may also be used as indicators for human enteric viruses like the virus of infectious hepatitis.