Attachment of noroviruses to stainless steel and their inactivation, using household disinfectants

The aims of this study were (i) to evaluate the impact of pH and relative humidity on the attachment of norovirus (NoV) to fomites and (ii) to evaluate the effectiveness of different household disinfectants on NoV attached to fomites. Plaque assay and/or real-time reverse transcription PCR assay were used to determine the amount of murine and human NoV attached to stainless steel disks, i.e., the amount removed by sonication in elution buffer but not by surface rinses with water only. An enzymatic pretreatment was used for both human and murine NoV before the real-time reverse transcription PCR assay to avoid detection of RNA associated with inactivated virus. The results will help improve strategies for decontaminating surfaces harbouring NoV and thus reduce the incidence of illness caused by these pathogens in the food sector and domestic environments. J Food Prot. 2010;73:400-4.