IIT Guwahati study finds natural clays make viruses ineffective

NEW DELHI: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati have found that natural clays, bentonite and kaolin, can reduce the concentration of viruses and can, therefore, be used in pathogenic waste disposal.The team’s study focused on the reduction and transport of viruses through compacted natural clays.

The research team including Bharat Venkata Tadikonda, Sachin Kumar,Himanshu Yadav, and Shubham Gaurav, published their study in the American Chemical Society journal, Langmuir.

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Sachin Kumar, from the department of biosciences and bioengineering at IIT Guwahati, said "Newcastle disease virus (NDV) could be a surrogate to the coronavirus and recent studies have used NDV as surrogate for immunological studies.Thus, NDV was chosen for clay-virus interaction.” Further, Newcastle disease is an infectious and contagious viral infection that affects more than 250 different bird species worldwide with various degrees of vulnerability. A large amount of pathogenic waste gets generated from NDV outbreaks in the form of carcasses, potentially contaminated faeces, litter, farm bedding, and fomites, he added.

IIT Guwahati research

The researchers at IIT Guwahati investigated the behaviour of viruses in the presence of compacted clays like bentonite and kaolin.

IIT Guwahati team of researchers(Image Source: Official website)

The results of their study revealed a remarkable 99.6% reduction in viral contamination and very low diffusion rates.The researchers confirmed that both bentonite and kaolin clays in powder form can effectively prevent the contamination of the environment by viral waste.

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Different amounts of the virus were mixed with bentonite and kaolin clays, allowing them to interact for varying durations. Through-diffusion tests were also conducted to observe the movement of viruses through compacted clays. The results demonstrated that both types of clays were highly effective in reducing the concentration of the virus in the source.

The research findings showed that viral decay was faster on bentonite compared to kaolin clay.