Biological Indicators for Fecal Pollution Detection and Source Tracking: A Review

Abstract

Fecal pollution, commonly detected in untreated or less treated sewage, is associated with health risks (e.g., waterborne diseases and antibiotic resistance dissemination), ecological issues (e.g., release of harmful gases in fecal sludge composting, proliferative bacterial/algal growth due to high nutrient loads) and economy losses (e.g., reduced aqua farm harvesting). Therefore, the discharge of untreated domestic sewage to the environment and its agricultural reuse are growing concerns. The goals of fecal pollution detection include fecal waste source tracking and identifying the presence of pathogens, therefore assessing potential health risks. This review summarizes available biological fecal indicators focusing on host specificity, degree of association with fecal pollution, environmental persistence, and quantification methods in fecal pollution assessment. The development of practical tools is a crucial requirement for the implementation of mitigation strategies that may help confine the types of host-specific pathogens and determine the source control point, such as sourcing fecal wastes from point sources and nonpoint sources. Emerging multidisciplinary bacterial enumeration platforms are also discussed, including individual working mechanisms, applications, advantages, and limitations.

Irrigation of Olives with Reclaimed Wastewaters and Deficit Strategies Affect Pathogenic Bacteria Contamination of Water and Soil

“…Moreover, legislation [ 21 , 22 ] does not provide any indication of detection and the maximum limit of enterococci and SRC spores permitted in the reuse of wastewater for fruit tree irrigation. Although enterococci and SRC spores are resistant to disinfection in SW and are able to survive for long periods in the environment [ 46 ], the DW eliminated enterococci and significantly reduced the numbers of SRC spores. Since SW always resulted in contamination by Enterococci and SRC spores, this contamination was always found in the RW samples resulting from the mixing of SW and BR.…”

The Interplay of Environment and Biota in Assessing the Freshwater Quality in Karst

“…The coliform contents of the input waters were higher, likely due to the proximity to the contamination sources. Instead, E. coli showed a higher concentration in output waters likely due to the cumulative effect of the water mixture originating from different sources and the greater viability of E. coli underground, which has been characterized with more stable features [119]. Only the water of the independent system of the TAR showed a significant increase in E coli, as compared to the input waters from the KSRP, which likely was due to the greater organic pollution from the nearby agricultural land and village (Figure 1b) that lacked a public sewage system.…”

Decoding the roles of extremophilic microbes in the anaerobic environments: Past, Present, and Future

“…The anaerobic bacteria, which are responsible for methane fermentation in sewage include Methanosarcina ( Hardegen et al., 2018 ), Methanosaeta ( Vítěz et al., 2020 ), Clostridium , and Bifidobacterium ( Cyprowski et al., 2018 ). Moreover, it has been found that Clostridium is predominantly found in the sludge and can be used as a microbial indicator of water pollution ( Saxena et al., 2015 ; Li et al., 2021 ). The presence of anaerobes improves the efficiency of wastewater treatment in many ways.…”