Abstract

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is one of the most commonly adopted indicators for the determination of themicrobiological quality in water and treated wastewater. Two main types of methods are used for theenumeration of this faecal indicator: membrane filtration (MF) and enzyme substrate tests. For bothtypes, several substrates based on the ?-D-glucuronidase activity have been commercialized. Thespecificity of this enzyme for E. coli bacteria has generated considerable use of methods that identifythe ?-D-glucuronidase activity as a definite indication of the presence of E. coli, without any furtherconfirmation. This approach has been recently questioned for the application to wastewater. Thepresent study compares two methods belonging to the above-mentioned types for the enumerationof E. coli in wastewater: MF with Tryptone Bile X-glucuronide agar and the Colilert®-18 test.Confirmation tests showed low average percentages of false positives and false negatives for bothenumeration methods (between 4 and 11%). Moreover, the counting capabilities of these twomethods were compared for a set of 70 samples of wastewater having different origins and degreesof treatment. Statistical analysis showed that the Colilert®-18 test allowed on average for asignificantly higher recovery of E. coli.

Autore Pugliese

• Pollice Alfieri , Salerno Carlo , Barca Emanuele , Berardi Giovanni

Tutti gli autori

• Vergine P.; Salerno C.; Barca E.; Berardi G.; Pollice A.

Titolo volume/Rivista

Journal of water and health

Anno di pubblicazione

2017

ISSN

1477-8920

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Scopus

Non Disponibile

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Settori ERC

Non Disponibile

Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile