Citation:

LU, J., J. W. SANTO-DOMINGO, R. LAMENDELLA, T. EDGE, AND S. HILL. Phylogenetic Diversity and Molecular Detection of Bacteria in Gull Feces. APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, 74(13):3969-3976, (2008).

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Description:

In spite of increasing public health concerns about the potential risks associated with swimming in waters contaminated with waterfowl feces, little is known about the composition of the gut microbial community of aquatic birds. To address this, a gull 16S rDNA fecal clone library was developed and analyzed to determine the identity of fecal bacteria. The results from 282 16S rDNA clones demonstrated that the gull gut bacterial community is diverse. Sequences closely related with Bacilli (37%), Clostridia (17%), ã proteobacteria (11%) and Bacteriodetes (1%) were the most common gull fecal bacterial clones. Interestingly, a considerable number of sequences (i.e., 26%) were closely related to Catellicoccus marimammalium, a novel Gram-positive, catalase-negative bacterium. To determine the occurrence of C. marimammalium in waterfowl, 16S rDNA species-specific PCR and real-time assays were developed and challenged against fecal DNA extracts from different bird (13) and mammal (18) species. The results showed that both assays were specific to gull fecal DNA and that C. marimammalium was present in gull fecal samples from the five locations tested. Due to the widespread presence of this species in gulls, targeting this bacterial species might be used useful at detecting gull fecal contamination in waterfowl impacted waters.

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