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The presence of fecal coliform in aquatic environments may indicate that the water has been contaminated with the fecal material of humans or other animals. Fecal coliform bacteria can enter rivers through direct discharge of waste from mammals and birds, from agricultural and storm runoff, and from human sewage.
While coliform bacteria are not normally the cause of serious illness, they are easy to culture, and their presence is used to infer that other pathogenic organisms of fecal origin may be present in a sample, or that said sample is not safe to consume. [1]
Fecal coliforms are more useful as indicators in recreational waters than total coliforms which include species that are naturally found in plants and soil; however, there are even some species of fecal coliforms that do not have a fecal origin, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae. Perhaps the biggest drawback to using coliforms as indicators is that ...
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The bacterium grows massively in fresh fecal matter under aerobic conditions for three days, but its numbers decline slowly afterwards. [10] Some serotypes, such as EPEC and ETEC, are pathogenic, causing serious food poisoning in their hosts. [11] Fecal–oral transmission is the major route through which pathogenic strains of the bacterium ...
As the summer season gets underway, a new report finds that many coastal U.S. waterways, including popular beaches for swimming, are contaminated with unsafe levels of fecal bacteria.
In 2004, measurement of enterococci took the place of fecal coliforms as the new American federal standard for water quality at public saltwater beaches and alongside Escherichia coli at freshwater beaches. [23] It is believed to provide a higher correlation than fecal coliform with many of the human pathogens often found in city sewage. [24]