Alternative surrogates and testing protocol for point-of-use water treatment device field efficacy testing

基于实验室的使用点(POU)水处理设备的有效性测试通常用于验证它们在保护能力方面的性能(即目标生物的对数减少多少)。为此，对替代物的目标生物体的挑战测试是在受控良好的环境中进行的，并遵循行业接受的协议。由于其分散化的性质，POU水处理设备由最终用户操作。人们认为，这可能是这种设备的现场性能可能不如实验室测试的原因之一。这是基于实地研究报告的合规结果(即最终水质)。然而，不知道它们的保护能力是否有任何损失，因为目前在POU没有基于现场的药效测试方案。该项目寻求解决这一问题，方法是测试将在该项目开发的现场检测方案中使用的替代性非致病替代物的充分性。如果成功，这将使工业合作伙伴能够从现场获得有关其产品性能的宝贵信息，从而改进服务交付(例如，关于如何正确操作和维护设备的培训)。

Lab-based efficacy testing of point-of-use (POU) water treatment devices are typically used to validate theirperformances with regard to the protective capacity (i.e. how many log reductions of target organisms). To thisend, challenge testing with target organisms of surrogates is conducted in well-controlled environmentsfollowing industry-accepted protocols. Due to their decentralised nature, POU water treatment devices areoperated by end-users. It is thought that this may be one of the reasons that the field performance of suchdevices may not be as good as the lab tests. This is based on field studies reporting compliance results (i.e. finalwater quality). Yet, there is no knowledge of whether there is any loss of their protective capacity, as there iscurrently no field-based protocol for efficacy testing at the POU. This project seeks to address this by testingthe adequacy alternative non-pathogenic surrogates to be used in a field-based testing protocol also to bedeveloped by this project. If successful, this will allow the industrial partner to receive valuable informationfrom the field with regard to the performance of their product, leading to an improved delivery of service (e.g.training on how to properly operate and maintain the devices).