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Microbial source tracking (MST) is a still-new and emerging sub-discipline of Biology that allows practitioners to discriminate among the many possible sources of fecal pollution in environmental waters. MST’s current and potential applications range from beach monitoring to total maximum daily load (TMDL) assessment of pollution sources, that in turn will mediate greater protection of public health...
The establishment of rigorous, consistent performance criteria for microbial source tracking (MST) methods is essential for their usefulness and widespread acceptance as research and regulatory tools. In this chapter, we focus on performance criteria for library-independent methods, although many aspects of the discussion are applicable to both library-independent and library-dependent methods. We...
A range of bacterial source tracking techniques is grouped under what is commonly referred to as library-dependent methods (LDM). The methods require the construction of a library of known source profiles that are used for comparison with environmental isolates to determine sources of contamination. Development of the library for a particular study requires consideration of many factors including...
In recent years numerous library-independent methods for microbial source tracking have become available either relying on selective cultivation of source-specific bacteria or, increasingly, on direct detection of source-specific genetic markers. The scientific foundation for the detection of source-specific bacterial populations is discussed and an overview is provided of the methods developed in...
In assessments of water quality, determining the source of fecal contamination is of paramount importance for mitigating contamination, maintaining and restoring healthy ecosystems, and protecting public health. Historically, attention has focused on the use of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) to indicate the level of fecal contamination, but over the past decade some attention has shifted to the...
Bacteriophages infecting enteric bacteria have attractive features for tracking sources of fecal pollution in water. Some of these phages remain viable in water environments in numbers suitable for tracking purposes. Currently, F-specific RNA coliphages and Bacteroides phages seem to have the greatest potential. Standardized methods are available for the easy, sensitive, and inexpensive detection...
Waterborne diseases associated with polluted recreational and potable waters have been scientifically documented for over a century. Cryptosporidium and Giardia, as well as the Microsporidia, are known to be key causative agents of a majority of the reported cases of gastrointestinal disease worldwide. Concern regarding these protozoan pathogens has led to the continual design and application of...
A useful source tracking approach that has emerged over the past few years involves detection of human-specific chemicals found in wastewaters and septage. Chemicals specific to human wastewaters offer some potential advantages over biologically based methods: they are generally faster to prepare and analyze; they are more source-specific because they are not confounded by regrowth in the environment;...
Microbial source tracking (MST) concerns the definition of new indicators and appropriate detection methods, the identification of host-specific indicators of fecal pollution, and ultimately the development of useful and reliable predictive models for practical deployment. Optimal predictive models should be designed using proper statistical and computational tools for the analysis of the available...
Guidelines for water-quality monitoring have traditionally focused on the use of bacterial indicators. However, efforts to effectively mitigate fecal contamination necessitate greater clarity in source recognition. Host (mammalian and avian) epithelial cells are shed in the gut lumen and expelled in feces. These cells have multiple numbers of mitochondria, an organelle with its own genome, containing...
Microbial communities are each a composite of populations whose presence and relative abundance in water or other environmental samples are a direct manifestation of environmental conditions, including the introduction of microbe-rich fecal material and factors promoting persistence of the microbes therein. As shown by culture-independent methods, different animal-host fecal microbial communities...
Microbial source tracking (MST) is used to determine the source, extent, and content of water pollution; results from MST studies can be used to ameliorate the sources of pollution. If the general public is involved in such studies, MST can be an extremely valuable tool. (“The public” can include a local government official, a parent concerned about child safety, a congressman deciding about funding,...
Public health risks attributable to microbial pathogens are of serious concern and their evaluation is necessary to provide assurances of safety for food, drinking water supplies, recreational surface waters, beneficial water reuse (e.g., irrigation of areas accessible to the public), health care, and other applications. Litigation or other legal processes that may arise from individual infection/illness...
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program is frequently cited as a primary driver in the development of microbial source tracking (MST) techniques. As MST techniques continue to mature, it is prudent to identify those areas where further MST-related research is most likely to contribute to the efficient development and implementation of bacterial TMDLs. The objectives...
The regulation of coastal, inland, and flowing waters through the assessment of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) alone, while protective of public health, provides little information regarding contamination sources. The most effective protection of public health comes through the identification and mitigation or removal of the pollution source. Methods capable of assigning relative contributions to...
Microbial source tracking (MST) is often expensive, time-consuming, and intimidating to those who need it. To make matters worse, some MST researchers think that much MST is unnecessary and a waste of time and money. Simply by combining local knowledge and existing data with a general survey of the waterway, one can identify many sources of fecal bacteria in contaminated waterways without any testing...
Fecal indicator bacteria, including total and fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, and enterococci have been used to indicate the presence of fecal contamination in water used for drinking, shellfishing, and recreation. The assumptions behind the concept of using fecal indicator bacteria (total coliforms, fecal coliforms, E. coli, and enterococci) are that these organisms are normal inhabitants of the...
Identifying all relevant human and animal fecal sources is a basic requirement for target-oriented water resource management in agricultural and rural watersheds (ARW). As outlined, microbial source tracking (MST) is most suitably applied in concert with other methods within a broader conceptual framework of fecal pollution analysis. Two case studies – covering surface and karstic groundwater resources...
Water quality in urban and suburban watersheds is impacted by many sources, ranging from the mixtures contained in stormwater runoff, to human sewage from failed wastewater handling systems, to domestic animals and urban wild animals such as birds (e.g., gulls, geese), opossums, raccoons, and deer. Many urban and suburban water bodies are chronically contaminated with fecal indicator bacteria, and...
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