A novel approach for pathogen reduction in wastewater treatment

Many sewage waste treatment systems are aiming for complete pathogen removal which necessitates search fornovel approaches that does not harm the environment. one such novel approach is exploring the possibilities ofbacteriophages for pathogen removal. hospital wastewater was collected from different locations of tamil naduand used for the study. the total heterotroph and total coliform population ranged from 1.6 × 105 to 8.3 × 106 perml and from 1.2 × 103 to 1.6 × 103/ 100 ml of sample respectively. higher frequency of antibiotic resistant e. coli,pseudomonas sp. streptococcus sp and bacillus spp were observed in all the places, which clearly indicated theextent of pollution. all the samples had specific phages against e. coli and none of the samples had phages againstmtcc culture. e. coli specific phage was isolated and the population of phage required for effective killing of e. colihas been standardized as 3 × 104 pfu / ml of lysate. the inoculation resulted in 100% removal of pathogen fromsewage water within 14 hours of incubation.