This extended abstract presents a two year AWWARF-funded study to investigate the relative
performance of all methods approved for use for the detection of coliforms and E. coli
in drinking water in the U.S. and United Kingdom. This study investigated both the sensitivity and
selectivity of each method. Many of the methods performed similarly, but those that
utilize lactose fermentation for the detection of coliforms performed significantly
worse than those that are based upon the detection of expression ß-D-galactosidase.
The recovery of coliform organisms was significantly lower with methods using
lactose-based media using naturally contaminated samples. The numbers of coliforms
detected by methods using ß-D-galactosidase as the detection system was higher due
to the number of slow lactose fermenting organisms present. However, while there
were some differences in the genera detected, the differences were not significant.
Methods utilizing ß-D-galactosidase detected more of the "common coliforms" such
as Klebsiella, Citrobacter and Enterobacter than did lactose based methods as well as
more recently described coliforms. Includes extended abstract only.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 770 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 2 |
| Published : | 11/01/2009 |
