The survival of culturable fecal coliforms, fecal streptococci, and Clostridium perfringens spores in freshwater and marine sediments from sites near sewage outfalls was studied. In laboratory studies, the inhibition of protozoan predators with cycloheximide allowed the fecal coliforms to grow in the sediment whereas the presence of predators resulted in a net die-off. C. perfringens spores did...

The use of Pfizer selective enterococcus (PSE) agar with the membrane filter technique for the enumeration of fecal streptococci is limited due to the inability of the characteristic black precipitate, indicative of esculin hydrolysis, to diffuse from the medium through the membrane. A modification of the membrane filter technique that consisted of placing the membrane on PSE agar and overlayin...

Disposal of the pumped contents of septic tanks (septage) represents a possible means of dissemination of enteric pathogens including viruses, since persistence of enteroviruses in septic tank sludge for greater than 100 days has been demonstrated. The risk of exposure to potentially infectious agents can be reduced by disinfecting septages before their disposal. Of the septage disinfectants ex...

Bacteroides fragilis HSP40 phages have been detected in waters with various levels of fecal contamination of human origin. The average numbers of B. fragilis phages present in sewage water reached 5.3 x 10(3) per 100 ml of water. We found a number 1,000 times lower in a river contaminated with domestic sewage only, in which the levels of fecal coliforms and fecal streptococci were 10,000 times ...

The survival of enteric bacteria was measured in bovine feces on pasture. In each season, 11 cow pats were prepared from a mixture of fresh dairy cattle feces and sampled for up to 150 days. Four pats were analyzed for Escherichia coli, fecal streptococci, and enterococci, and four inoculated pats were analyzed for Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella enterica. Two pats were placed on drainage c...

The use of fecal streptococci as fecal indicators requires better knowledge of the ecology of these bacteria. We isolated 371 presumptive fecal streptococci from environmental samples--domestic wastewater, forest industry wastewater, contaminated surface and seawater, well water, cow dung, bird droppings, and pristine waters--and clustered them according to their protein profiles in one-dimensi...

An experiment was conducted over 7 mo (January to July 2003) to evaluate fecal bacteria and nutrient concentrations in soil surrounding round-bale feeders at 10 winter feeding sites. Soil samples 15 cm in depth were taken monthly from each site at distances of 3, 12, 21, and 30 m from the feeder. Soil samples were taken before livestock access to the sites (January), during the feeding period (...

Libreville, the largest city in Gabon, adversely impacts Komo Estuary and Akanda National Park aquatic ecosystems through discharge of domestic industrial waste. Fecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB: Escherichia coli fecal streptococci) were enumerated using culture-based methods water from 40 sites between 2017 2019 including coastal outlets, mangrove channels, open bays littoral rivers. Contaminatio...