Fortified Sera and Their Use in Environmental Virology

Four commercially available fortified sera were compared to fetal bovine serum (FBS) with regard to their ability to maintain or increase the sensitivity of the Buffalo green monkey (BGM) kidney cell line to viral infection. Nine virus strains and five wastewater samples were used. Fortified sera were comparable to FBS for the enumeration of some viruses by the plaque method and for the detection of virus in wastewater by the most-probable-number assay.