were taken every 6 h to determine the effects of diurnal variation of flow on virus load. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sampling site. Sewage and effluent samples were collected from a modem activated-sludge treatment plant situated 35 km (22 miles) from the city of Melbourne. This plant processes 290 Ml of domestic and industrial wastewater per day, providing service for a domestic population of 980,000 and industrial biological oxygen demand equivalent to a population of 544,000 in the southeastern and eastern sectors of the city. The estimated average time of flow from source to purification plant is 10 h. The sewage is first chlorinated (8 mg/liter

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An outbreak of adenovirus type 4 conjunctivitis occurred in South Australia between April and November 1992. Eye swabs were submitted by general practitioners and ophthalmologists who had seen patients with clinical conjunctivitis or keratitis. Apart from interfamilial spread, there were no other common epidemiological factors. Adenovirus was isolated from the eye swabs of 38 patients. Isolates were typed by neutralisation tests and restriction endonuclease cleavage patterns and found to be adenovirus type 4. This report serves to illustrate an infrequent cause of epidemic conjunctivitis, namely adenovirus type 4. There was no demonstrable focus of the outbreak.

The efficiency of a system developed for the recovery of viruses contaminating large quantities of vegetables was investigated in the laboratory and tested in the field. Viruses seeded onto a number of leafy vegetables in the laboratory were eluted with a phosphate-buffered saline solution (pH 9.0). The eluate was clarified by glass wool filtration, and any viruses present were concentrated by adsorption to a Filterite pleated cartridge filter, eluted with 3% beef extract (pH 9.0), and further concentrated by organic flocculation. At least 24 liters of vegetable eluate could be concentrated to 70 to 80 ml, equivalent to a greater than 99.5% reduction in volume. With this system, poliovirus was recovered with a mean efficiency of 58% for all vegetables tested. Adenovirus was recovered from lettuce with a slightly lower mean efficiency (55%). Poliovirus was recovered from large quantities of cabbage for up to 5 days in the field after spray irrigation of relatively low levels of virus, even when heavy rain fell before sampling.

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