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Marker genes of fecal indicator bacteria and potential pathogens in animal feces in a subtropical catchment
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Marker genes of fecal indicator bacteria and potential pathogens in animal feces in a subtropical catchment

Warish Ahmed, Christian A O'Dea, Nicole Masters, Anna V Kuballa, Oswald Marinoni and Mohammad Katouli
Science of the Total Environment, Vol.656, pp.1427-1435
2019
PMID: 30625670
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Marker genes of fecal indicator bacteria and potential pathogens in animal feces in a subtropical catchment919.26 kBDownloadView
Accepted Version Open Access CC BY-NC-ND V4.0
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.439View
Published Version

Abstract

fecal indicator bacteria pathogenic bacteria fecal pollution zoonosis cryptosporidium parvum mycobacterium avium complex
We investigated the abundance of marker genes of two fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and eight potential pathogens in fecal samples (n = 14) of humans and 10 domestic and native wild animals (n = 134). For each target animal, between 10 and 14 individual fecal samples were collected (n = 148 individual fecal samples in total). The abundance of FIB and potential pathogens within each sample was tested using quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays. All animals tested were positive for Escherichia coli (EC) and the concentrations ranged from 6.13 (flying fox) to 8.87 (chicken) log10 GC/g of feces. These values for Enterococcus spp. (ENT) were 5.25 log10 GC/g for flying fox and 8.12 log10 GC/g of feces for chicken. Moderate correlations were observed between EC with P. aeruginosa, EC O157 and Cryptosporidium parvum, whereas weak correlations were observed between EC and Salmonella and Giardia lamblia, Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and Campylobacter spp. The prevalence of MAC and P. aeruginosa were low in dog (14.3% each) and moderate (57.2%, MAC; 42.9% P. aeruginosa) in Eastern grey kangaroo fecal samples. C. parvum was detected in one cattle and one human fecal sample, while G. lamblia was detected in one dog, one flying fox, and one pig fecal samples. Among the eight potential pathogens tested, five pathogens were detected in chicken and dog fecal samples. The remaining animal species contained up to three potential pathogens in their feces. The data generated in this study will aid in the calculation of pathogen loads in the environment, and hence to assess the risks from fecal contamination of source waters.

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