Enterococci as Indicators of Lake Michigan Recreational Water Quality: Comparison of Two Methodologies and Their Impacts on Public Health Regulatory Events
AUTOR(ES)
Kinzelman, Julie
FONTE
American Society for Microbiology
RESUMO
The frequency of poor-water-quality advisories issued in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, in the absence of identifiable sources of contamination brought into question the reliability of the present indicator organism, Escherichia coli. Enteroccoci have been suggested as an alternative to E. coli for freshwater monitoring due to their direct correlation to swimmer-associated gastroenteritis. The purpose of this research was threefold: (i) to explore enterococci as an alternative to E. coli for monitoring freshwater Lake Michigan beaches, (ii) to evaluate the impact of the two indicators on regulatory decisions, and (iii) to compare membrane filtration m-enterococcus agar with indoxyl-β-d-glucoside to a chemical substrate technique (Enterolert) for the recovery of enterococci. Recreational water samples from Milwaukee (n = 305) and Racine (n = 153) were analyzed for the enumeration of E. coli and enterococci using IDEXX Colilert-18 and Enterolert. Correlation between the indicators was low (R2 = 0.60 and 0.69). Based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency bacterial indicator threshold levels of risk for full body immersion, using enterococci would have resulted in 56 additional unsafe-recreational-water-quality advisories compared to the total from using E. coli and the substrate-based methods. A comparison of the two enterococcal methods (n = 124) yielded similar results (R2 = 0.62). This was further confounded by the frequent inability to verify enterococci from those wells producing fluorescence by the defined substrate test using conventional microbiological methods. These results suggest that further research is necessary regarding the use of defined substrate technology interchangeably with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved membrane filtration test for the detection of enterococci from fresh surface water.
ACESSO AO ARTIGO
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=152387Documentos Relacionados
- Occurrence of Escherichia coli and Enterococci in Cladophora (Chlorophyta) in Nearshore Water and Beach Sand of Lake Michigan†
- A STUDY OF THE WATER OF LAKE MICHIGAN
- Development of indicators for quality assurance in public health medicine.
- Foreshore Sand as a Source of Escherichia coli in Nearshore Water of a Lake Michigan Beach†
- New dimensions of public health: their impact on the evaluation and selection of health personnel. I. Quality manpower for quality service.