Journal article

Presence and survival of culturable Campylobacter spp. and Escherichia coli in a temperate urban estuary

C Schang, A Lintern, PLM Cook, C Osborne, A McKinley, J Schmidt, R Coleman, G Rooney, R Henry, A Deletic, D McCarthy

Science of the Total Environment | ELSEVIER | Published : 2016

Abstract

Urban estuaries throughout the world typically contain elevated levels of faecal contamination, the extent of which is generally assessed using faecal indicator organisms (FIO) such as Escherichia coli. This study assesses whether the bacterial FIO, E. coli is a suitable surrogate for Campylobacter spp., in estuaries. The presence and survival dynamics of culturable E. coli and Campylobacter spp. are compared in the water column, bank sediments and bed sediments of the Yarra River estuary (located in Melbourne, Australia). The presence of E. coli did not necessarily indicate detectable levels of Campylobacter spp. in the water column, bed and bank sediments, but the inactivation rates of the..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Melbourne Water through Linkage Program


Funding Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the contributions made by the Australian Research Council and Melbourne Water through the Linkage Program (LP120100718) for this work. The authors also acknowledge the contribution of the Monash University Water Studies Centre, Keralee Brown, Vera Eate, Peter Kolotelo and Richard Williamson in the collection and laboratory analysis of samples and Peter Bach for his help with producing Fig. 1.