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Quantitative determination of total coliforms and Escherichia coli in marine waters with chromogenic and fluorogenic media
Author(s) -
Geissler K.,
Manafi M.,
Amorós I.,
Alonso J. L.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2672.2000.00970.x
Subject(s) - chromogenic , escherichia coli , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , enterobacteriaceae , biology , food science , chromatography , biochemistry , gene
This study compared the performance of LMX ® broth (LMX), Chromocult Coliform ® agar (CC) and Chromocult Coliform agar plus cefsulodin (10 μg ml −1 ) (CC‐CFS), with standard methods multiple tube fermentation (MTF), for the enumeration of total coliforms and Escherichia coli from marine recreational waters. LMX and CC are two media designed to concurrently detect total coliform (TC) bacteria and E. coli by the specific action of β‐galactosidase (total coliforms) and β‐glucuronidase ( E. coli ). Overall results for the TC test showed that LMX, CC and MTF recovered 2.63, 1.95 and 1.90 times as many TCs as CC‐CFS, respectively. Data from the multiple range test showed significant differences ( P < 0.05) between TC counts on CC‐CFS and LMX. The traditional MTF was less sensitive for E. coli enumeration. However, there was no statistically significant differences between LMX, CC, CC‐CFS and the MTF method for E. coli enumeration. Background interference was reduced on CC‐CFS and the counts obtained reflected more accurately the number of TCs. Therefore, the contribution of β‐galactosidase positive, non coliform bacteria ( Aeromonas spp. and Vibrio spp.) to TC counts should not be neglected.