Lab 5 Coliform Bacteria and Surface Water
LAB 5: Coliform bacteria in surface waters
I. Introduction
Many organisms, including humans, have symbiotic bacteria in their guts that aid digestion. Symbiosis is an intimate relationship between different organisms in which both the host organism, e.g. the human, and the symbiote, e.g. bacteria, benefit from each other. In this case, the bacterium gets a favorable environment and food source in the intestines of a human. In return, these bacteria improve the digestibility of food through a host of enzymatic processes.
A subset of this group of bacteria is known collectively as fecal coliforms, which includes the well-known E. coli, some strains of which are necessary for human health, and some which are pathogenic and can make you very sick. Although the beneficial strains of this bacteria aid human digestion, finding these bacteria in waterways serves as a warning for the potential spread of disease because they can indicate human or animal feces. Therefore, coliform bacteria are used in water quality testing as indicators of other pathogenic bacteria that commonly are found associated with coliforms, e.g., Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, Klebsiella and certain strains of E. coli.
Figure 1. Breakdown of coliform into categories: total, fecal and E. coli (wqm.igsb.uiowa.edu)
Figure 1. Breakdown of coliform into categories: total, fecal and E. coli (wqm.igsb.uiowa.edu)
How do Coliforms get there? What is required is any type of mammal or bird producing excrement. This could be as simple as a duck floating on a pond or a human flushing the toilet. These single events, however, will not produce enough bacteria to be detected. What is required is some concentrated amount of waste entering the environment.
For example, Ohio does not issue Clean Water Act permits specifically for concentrated livestock operations. Ohio is the number one egg producing state, and what happens with the excrement of 30 million chickens? For the most part,
I. Introduction
Many organisms, including humans, have symbiotic bacteria in their guts that aid digestion. Symbiosis is an intimate relationship between different organisms in which both the host organism, e.g. the human, and the symbiote, e.g. bacteria, benefit from each other. In this case, the bacterium gets a favorable environment and food source in the intestines of a human. In return, these bacteria improve the digestibility of food through a host of enzymatic processes.
A subset of this group of bacteria is known collectively as fecal coliforms, which includes the well-known E. coli, some strains of which are necessary for human health, and some which are pathogenic and can make you very sick. Although the beneficial strains of this bacteria aid human digestion, finding these bacteria in waterways serves as a warning for the potential spread of disease because they can indicate human or animal feces. Therefore, coliform bacteria are used in water quality testing as indicators of other pathogenic bacteria that commonly are found associated with coliforms, e.g., Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, Klebsiella and certain strains of E. coli.
Figure 1. Breakdown of coliform into categories: total, fecal and E. coli (wqm.igsb.uiowa.edu)
Figure 1. Breakdown of coliform into categories: total, fecal and E. coli (wqm.igsb.uiowa.edu)
How do Coliforms get there? What is required is any type of mammal or bird producing excrement. This could be as simple as a duck floating on a pond or a human flushing the toilet. These single events, however, will not produce enough bacteria to be detected. What is required is some concentrated amount of waste entering the environment.
For example, Ohio does not issue Clean Water Act permits specifically for concentrated livestock operations. Ohio is the number one egg producing state, and what happens with the excrement of 30 million chickens? For the most part,