- Title
- Suitability of total coliform beta-D-galactosidase activity and CFU counts in monitoring faecal contamination of environmental water samples
- Creator
- Wutor, V C
- Creator
- Togo, C A
- Creator
- Pletschke, Brett I
- Date Issued
- 2009
- Date
- 2009
- Type
- Article
- Identifier
- vital:6477
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006165
- Identifier
- http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S1816-79502009000100010&script=sci_arttext
- Description
- Total coliforms are a group of bacteria found in high numbers in mammalian intestines; hence their presence in water indicates the possible contamination with faecal material. Total and faecal coliform counts were monitored over a period of 18 months using mFC, m-Endo and CM1046 media together with enzymatic assays on 215 environmental water samples obtained from the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A positive correlation, with an R2 value of 0.9393 was observed between faecal and total coliform colony units employing mFc and m-Endo media, and 0.8818 using CM1046 media. Also, a positive correlation was observed between Escherichia coli colony-forming units and β-D-galactosidase (B-GAL) activity (R2=0.8542). Overall, this study indicated that faecal contamination of environmental water samples could be monitored by measuring total coliform β-galactosidase activity and total coliform colony-forming units.
- Format
- 4 pages
- Format
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Wutor, V. C. and Togo, C.A. and Pletschke, B.I. (2009) Suitability of total coliform beta-D-galactosidase activity and CFU counts in monitoring faecal contamination of environmental water samples. Water SA, 35 (1). pp. 85-88. Available: http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S1816-79502009000100010&script=sci_arttext
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Pletschke, Brett (Prof)
RU Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology