Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Oct;91(10):1402-1408.
doi: 10.1002/wer.1238. Epub 2019 Sep 21.

Detection and occurrence of indicator organisms and pathogens

Amir M Motlagh  1 , Zhengjian Yang  1
Affiliations
Review

Detection and occurrence of indicator organisms and pathogens

Amir M Motlagh et al. Water Environ Res. 2019 Oct.

Abstract

This review paper focuses on detection and quantification techniques of indicator organisms that can be used for water quality assessment. The environmental pathogens that are critical to understand and better evaluate water quality are also discussed in this paper. Several recent studies using culture-independent methods such as microbial source tracking, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, mitochondrial DNA, and next generation sequencing to assess various environmental samples and water bodies have been reviewed. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Various waterborne pathogens and cases of outbreak occurances due to presence of pathogens are studied in this review paper. Recent studies for detecting major indicator organisms to evaluate the presence of pathogens in water bodies are reviewed. Culture-independent techniques as robust tools to detect and quantify waterborne pathogens are discussed in this review paper.

Keywords: environmental health; indicator organisms; microbial source tracking; outbreak; pathogen.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bernhard, A. E. , & Field, K. G. (2000). Identification of nonpoint sources of fecal pollution in coastal waters by using host‐specific 16S ribosomal DNA genetic markers from fecal anaerobes. Applied and Environment Microbiology, 66(4), 1587–1594. 10.1128/AEM.66.4.1587-1594.2000 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bradshaw, J. K. , Snyder, B. J. , Oladeinde, A. , Spidle, D. , Berrang, M. E. , Meinersmann, R. J. , … Molina, M. (2016). Characterizing relationships among fecal indicator bacteria, microbial source tracking markers, and associated waterborne pathogen occurrence in stream water and sediments in a mixed land use watershed. Water Research, 101, 498–509. 10.1016/j.watres.2016.05.014 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Costa, A. , Gusmara, C. , Gardoni, D. , Zaninelli, M. , Tambone, F. , Sala, V. , & Guarino, M. (2017). The effect of anaerobic digestion and storage on indicator microorganisms in swine and dairy manure. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 24(31), 24135–24146. 10.1007/s11356-017-0011-5 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cui, Q. , Fang, T. , Huang, Y. , Dong, P. , & Wang, H. (2017). Evaluation of bacterial pathogen diversity, abundance and health risks in urban recreational water by amplicon next‐generation sequencing and quantitative PCR. Journal of Environmental Sciences, 57, 137–149. 10.1016/j.jes.2016.11.008 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dias, E. , Ebdon, J. , & Taylor, H. (2018). The application of bacteriophages as novel indicators of viral pathogens in wastewater treatment systems. Water Research, 129, 172–179. 10.1016/j.watres.2017.11.022 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources