Microbial contamination of sand from major beaches in Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil

Abstract

The presence of faecal contamination and pathogenic microorganisms in samples of dry and wet sand collected from three major beaches in Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil: (Praia do Mucuripe, Praia do Futuro and Praia do Caça e Pesca), during the period of May 1999 to January 2000 was evaluated. Praia do Caça e Pesca had the highest incidence of E. coli in dry sand (56%) followed by Praia do Mucuripe (28%) and Praia do Futuro (16%). In wet sand, results were 48%, 28% and 24% for Praia do Caça e Pesca, Praia do Futuro and Praia do Mucuripe, respectively. Only two samples from Praia do Futuro, one from dry sand and another one from wet sand, were positive for Salmonella. V. parahaemolyticus was isolated from four samples from Praia do Caça e Pesca (two from dry-sand samples and two from wet-sand), one from Praia do Futuro (wet sand), and three and four from Praia do Mucuripe (wet and dry sand, respectively). Yeasts belonged to the Candida genus. Dry-sand samples presented higher yeast contaminations level than wet-sand ones. Praia do Futuro had the highest level of yeast contamination (41%), followed by Praia do Caça e Pesca (33%) and Praia do Mucuripe (26%).

Distribution and abundance of microflora in sandy beaches on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea

“…This supports the results of earlier studies by Vieira et al (2001) from three ocean beaches in Fortaleza, Ceará State (Brazil), Sato et al (2005) from beaches on the South Coast of São Paulo (Brazil) and Vogel et al (2007) from three recreational beaches in southern Florida (USA). Higher numbers of actinomycetes, filamentous fungi and yeasts in dry sand, which is not influenced by the tides, may indicate that the main source of these organisms is not the seawater, but inputs from soil, runoff and beach users (Papadakis et al 1997, Arvanitidou et al 2002.…”

“…Marine beaches are regions of transition between the firm land and the sea, and as such, they are subject to significant influences from both ecosystems. These areas are exposed to strong variations in the rates of sun exposure, immersion and submersion, rainfall and concentration of nutrients (Vieira et al 2001, Schlacher et al 2008. Beaches usually receive large inputs of organic matter supplied by the seawater, phytobenthos assimilates, and products washed and leached out from the seaweed, animal faeces, the products of meio-and macrofauna, and remains of plants and animals (Koop & Griffiths 1982, Brown & McLachlan 1990, Jędrzejczak 1999.…”

Occurrence of potentially human pathogenic bacteria in the seawater and in the sand of the recreational coastal beach in the southern Baltic Sea

“…leads to a potential disease , Elmir et al 2007). Swimming in the seawater and recreational activities on the sandy beach contaminated with pathogenic bacteria may cause skin, eye, ear, or nose infection, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, meningitis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, respiratory diseases, occurrence of dermatitis and mycosis (Kueh et al 1992, Efstratiou 2001, Vieira et al 2001, Esiobu et al 2004, Stewart et al 2008. Over 250 million cases of gastroenteritis, 50 million cases of respiratory diseases and 5 − 10 million cases of hepatitis are reported every year from coastal regions all over the world (Clark et al 2003, Yamahara et al 2009).…”

Pathogenic fungi: An unacknowledged risk at coastal resorts? New insights on microbiological sand quality in Portugal

“…Potentially pathogenic microorganisms in sands include faecal bacteria as found in the water but also mycological agents including fungi, yeasts and moulds (Vieira et al, 2001;Mancini et al, 2004;Abdallah et al, 2005;Sato et al, 2005;Gomes et al, 2007). Several American (Vieira et al, 2001;Sato et al, 2005;Gomes et al, 2007) and European studies (Brandão et al, 2002;Mancini et al, 2004;Abdallah et al, 2005;Matavulj et al, 2005) have been performed on this issue and although the World Health Organisation report considered sand contamination it made no recommendations as to standards, neither do they feature in current European or US legislation.…”