The occurrence and significance to animal health ofLeptospira, Mycobacterium, Escherichia coli, Brucella abortusandBacillus anthracisin sewage and sewage sludges

Abstract

Samples of sewage, sewage sludge and sewage effluent from one or more of four sewage treatment plants were examined for the presence of Leptospira, Mycobacterium, Escherichia coli, Brucella abortus and Bacillus anthracis. Brucella abortus and Bacillus anthracis were not isolated. Eleven strains of E. coli potentially enteropathogenic for calves or piglets, eight pathogenic strains of Mycobacterium and one patho;genic Leptospira strain were isolated from 101, 189 and 189 samples respectively. Sewage sludge is no;t considered to play a major part in the epidemiology of disease caused by these organisms.

Biodiversity of Environmental Leptospira: Improving Identification and Revisiting the Diagnosis

“…This procedure has been greatly facilitated by using the STAFF combination of antimicrobial agents (Chakraborty et al, 2011 ) which allows selective isolation of leptospires from contaminated samples. Earlier work has used quite similar combinations of agents to grow leptospires selectively with some success (Cousineau and McKiel, 1961 ; Jones et al, 1981 ). Although very effective, this is not sufficient to recover pure cultures as multiple Leptospira species can be present alongside in the initial sample.…”

“…Attempts to isolate Leptospira from the environment has led to the description of L. kmetyi from soil and other successful isolation of pathogenic leptospires from the environment in Malaysia (Slack et al, 2009 ; Ridzlan et al, 2010 ; Benacer et al, 2013 ). The use of selective agents to isolate leptospires from complex samples was imagined in the early 1960s (Cousineau and McKiel, 1961 ), successfully used later (Jones et al, 1981 ), and a revised combination was successfully used recently (Chakraborty et al, 2011 ).…”

A new serovarmogdeniof serogroup Tarassovi ofLeptospira interrogansisolated from a sewage plant in England

“…The project was financed by the Thames Water Authority. Results dealing mainly with the saprophytic leptospires isolated during the investigation were reported by Cinco, Coghlan & Matthews (1980), while in a second report on the occurrence and significance to animal health of various pathogenic bacterial species including Leptospira interrogans in sewage and sewage sludges, mention is made of the single strain of pathogenic leptospire isolated from those sources (Jones et al 1981). This paper deals with the identification of that single pathogenic strain referred to as Compton 746 that proved to be a new serovar within the serogroup Tarassovi.…”

“…Two different sewage plants were chosen, one of which, Plant D receives waste from a cattle market and local farms while the other, Plant F, a large urban treatment plant, processes material that is mainly of human origin, with only a (1965) with the addition of 1 % rabbit serum, 100 jug per ml 5-fluorouracil (Johnson & Rogers, 1964) and 50,g per ml of amphotericin B (Jones et al 1981). …”

Health hazard evaluation report: HETA-98-0118-2748, Bio-Solids Land Application Process LeSourdsville, Ohio.

“…Some species in these genera can cause disease in humans. 30,31 Culturable bacteria were found on four sets of the incubated MacConkey agar plates. Three of these sets grew one CFU and one grew three CFU.…”