Isolation of enteric viruses from sewage of a sewage treatment plant in Nara Prefecture was carried out during one-year from June 1984 to May 1985. Both supernatant and sediment of the sewage samples were subjected to virus isolation. Viruses were isolated almost similarly from the supernatants and the sediments.
Poliovirus, echovirus, coxsackievirus, adenovirus and reovirus were found in the sewage. Polioviruses were isolated during the periods which coincided with those of vaccine administration, and the group B coxsackieviruses were frequently isolated all year round. Among the group B coxsackieviruses isolated type B2, B4 and B5 viruses were isolated successively for a long period, suggesting that these type viruses caused epidemics. The incidences of antibodies against the group B coxsackieviruses in the sera collected in this study area supported that these types of viruses caused epidemics. Futhermore, we observed that the epidemic of type B4 which virus occurred in 1984 though this type was isolated successively for a long period in 1983.
