Use of Enterococcus, BST and Sterols for Poultry Pollution Source Tracking in Surface and Groundwater

Abstract

Maintaining and preserving the quality of surface and ground waters involves many challenges, one of the most serious being bacteriological contamination caused by discharge of human and animal waste. Water resources may become contaminated with pathogens from human or animal feces as a result of malfunctioning wastewater operations (treatment plants or septic systems), stormwater or combined sewer overflows, poor management practices for storing or land-applying livestock manure, and defecation by livestock and wildlife in or near surface waters. Pollution source identification is crucial in order to improve best management practices and eliminate consequent health risks to the general public and aquatic ecosystems. Distinguishing between human and animal sources of fecal pollution in water has been a subject of many studies (Tyagi et al., 2009a). Microbial source tracking methods have employed a wide range of micro-organisms (e.g., fecal coliforms, total coliforms, bifidobacteria, E. coli, enterococci) for identifying sources of water pollution, but each has certain limitations (Tyagi et al., 2009a). Moreover, many microbes are not hostspecific, making them ineffective for source identification. Chemical methods for fecal source tracking include analysis of sterols, bile acids, caffeine, whitening agents etc., with sterols being the most widely used indicator compound (Bull et al., 2002; Saim et al., 2009; Tyagi et al., 2009b). Both classes of methods have been somewhat successful in identifying pollution sources but not fully evaluated and accepted as established methods in environmental studies.