Microbial Source Tracking: State of the Science

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• 作者：Joyce M. Simpson ; Jorge W. Santo Domingo ; and Donald J. Reasoner
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2002
• 出版时间：December 15, 2002
• 年：2002
• 卷：36
• 期：24
• 页码：5279 - 5288
• 全文大小：80K
• 年卷期：v.36,no.24(December 15, 2002)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Although water quality of the Nation's lakes, rivers andstreams has been monitored for many decades and especiallysince the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, manystill do not meet the Act's goal of "fishable and swimmable".While waterways can be impaired in numerous ways,the protection from pathogenic microbe contamination ismost important for waters used for human recreation, drinkingwater and aquaculture. Typically, monitoring methodsused for detecting potential pathogenic microorganisms inenvironmental waters are based upon cultivation andenumeration of fecal indicator bacteria (i.e. fecal coliforms,E. coli, and fecal enterococci). Currently, there is increasinginterest in the potential for molecular fingerprintingmethods to be used not only for detection but also foridentification of fecal contamination sources. Molecularmethods have been applied to study the microbial ecologyof environmental systems for years and are now beingapplied to help improve our waters by identifying problemsources and determining the effect of implementedremedial solutions. Management and remediation of waterpollution would be more cost-effective if the correctsources could be identified. This review provides an outlineof the main methods that either have been used or havebeen suggested for use in microbial source tracking andsome of the limitations associated with those methods.