SAND AND CHARCOAL AS IMMOBILIZATION MATRICES OF PHAGES AND PROBIOTICS FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENTDRISYA THARUVANA, ASHA SUNDARESH, SREELAKSHMI V J, ARYA DAS, BIPIN NAIR, AJITH MADHAVAN AND SANJAY PALAbstract The filtration efficiency of charcoal and sand filter in drinking water treatment has been well studied where the microbial load is minimal compared to wastewater. The efficiency of these filters in removing pathogen load in wastewater stream is poor because of quick saturation of the surface area. The present work was intended to design the filter with non-pathogenic microbes which can potentially form bio film and compete out the incoming pathogen stream in wastewater. Bacteriophage specifically can augment this process by selectively targeting the pathogens. So we have isolated Bacteriophage against the isolates of E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella and Vibrio from the sewage. Then we tested the efficiency of using sand and charcoal as matrices for immobilization of Bacteriophage cocktail and Lactobacillus plantarum in removing the target pathogens by culturing them on Eosin Methylene Blue Agar (EMB) media which promote gram-negative enteric bacteria. Combination of both phage cocktail and Lactobacillus plantarum showed 2 log bacterial count reduction in EMB media compared to either of them alone in the charcoal and sand filter.
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