What is E. coli? E. coli stands for
Escherichia coli. Escherichia coli are bacteria naturally found in the feces (poop) of warm- and cold-blooded animals (including humans). Because animals have been defecating in the environment for centuries, E. coli are commonly detected in environmental samples. Although they are commonly associated with foodborne illness, most types of E. coli are harmless and can serve as bacteria to indicate if something has been contaminated with feces.
What happens when E. coli enters the environment?E.coli found in water can indicate when it has been contaminated with fecal matter.
How can E. coli affect my health?
As previously stated, most
E. coli are not pathogenic, but toxin-producing
E. coli can cause diarrhea, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and other illnesses.
Where can I get more information on E. coli?
Important note: The use of SRB for assessment of contamination is very unique to this project. Though preliminary research suggests that SRB may be a strong indicator of fecal contamination, this has not been tested in harvested rainwater or in the American Southwest. In the third year of the project, we will compare the number of E. coli and Total Coliforms (for which there are standards) to the number of SRB (for which there are no standards) in each sample. We hope to discover that homeowners will be able to use a kit that identifies a non-pathogenic organism (SRB) to assess the quality of their harvested rainwater. This would be very exciting, given that at-home kits for microbial water quality assessment do not exist.
Results shown below the Method Limit of Detection (MLOD) were measured at a time when the instrument's ability to detect was better, which provided a lower MLOD than shown here.
