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Comparing Temperature Effects on E. Coli, Salmonella, and Enterococcus Survival in Surface Waters
Citation:
Pachepsky, Y., R. Blaustein, G. Whelan, AND D. Shelton. Comparing Temperature Effects on E. Coli, Salmonella, and Enterococcus Survival in Surface Waters. Letters in Applied Microbiology. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, , accepted article, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
Article published in Letters in Applied Microbiology
Description:
The objective of this study was to compare dependency of survival rates on temperature for indicator organisms E. coli and Enterococcus and the pathogen Salmonella in surface waters. A database of 86 survival datasets from peer-reviewed papers on inactivation of E. coli, Salmonella, and Enterococcus in marine waters and of E. coli and Salmonella in lake waters was assembled. The Q10 model was used to express temperature effect on survival rates obtained from linear sections of semi-logarithmic survival graphs. Available data were insufficient to establish differences in survival rates and temperature dependencies for marine waters where values of Q10=3 and a survival rate of 0.7 day-1 could be applied. The Q10 values in lake waters were substantially lower in marine waters, and Salmonella inactivation in lake water was, on average, twice as fast as E. coli; data on E. coli substantially outnumber data on Enterococcus and Salmonella. The relative increase in inactivation with increase in temperature is higher in marine waters than lake water, and differences in inactivation between Salmonella and E. coli at a given temperature were significant in lake water but not in marine waters.
