British Food Journal Volume 64 Issue 6 1962

Since the introduction of very recent times of methods of tissue cultivation of viruses, strikingly different in so many aspects to the older and orthodox methods of bacterial cultivation, there has been a rapid increase in the knowledge of pathogenic viruses and their habitats. A sizeable literature has developed on the subject. Upwards of seventy viruses thrive in the intestines of man and exist in his excreta in large quantities; in sewage and even in the ultimate product of excreta—sludge. It goes without saying that with such a massive reservoir of infection, water and certain foods could play a part in the epidemiology of at least some of the diseases caused by the entero‐viruses. That up to the present there seems to be little evidence that they do is the result of what has been called “the imponderable elements” of such infections; the very great difference between the infectivity and morbidity of the organisms; between the silent and overt infections they produce.