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COMPARATIVE DIVERSITY OF FECAL BACTERIA IN AGRICULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT ANIMALS TO IDENTIFY ALTERNATIVE TARGETS FOR MICROBIAL SOURCE TRACKING
Citation:
Simpson*, J M., D J. Reasoner*, J W. Santo Domingo*, AND S. P. Myoda. COMPARATIVE DIVERSITY OF FECAL BACTERIA IN AGRICULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT ANIMALS TO IDENTIFY ALTERNATIVE TARGETS FOR MICROBIAL SOURCE TRACKING. Presented at 103rd Annual Mtg. of American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, 05/18-23/2003.
Description:
Animals of agricultural significance contribute a large percentage of fecal pollution to waterways via runoff contamination. The premise of microbial source tracking is to utilize fecal bacteria to identify target populations which are directly correlated to specific animal feces, thus permitting identification of contamination sources and implementation of remediation practices. To identify alternative targets for source tracking studies, comparison of fecal bacterial populations was performed using Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) targeting the V3 region of the 16S rDNA gene. Fecal populations from individual horses, cattle, swine, sheep and goats were compared. Greatest diversity was found in the ruminant animal species. Within the ruminants, between 40 to 51% of the bands within the fecal patterns were dominant populations (i.e. occurred in greater than 50% of animals tested) and 7 % were highly dominant (occurred in greater than 80% of animals tested). Within the non-ruminants, only 14 to 18% of the bands were dominant and 4% were highly dominant. Eleven bands were common to all fecal samples and eight bands were present in ruminants only. Another eight bands were predominantly found in ruminants, while three bands were predominant in non-ruminants. No bands specific to non-ruminants were found in any of the animals tested. Comparison using Dice's similarity coefficient and Ward's dendrogram algorithm indicated that fecal patterns tended to cluster according to digestive physiology (i.e. ruminants clustered with ruminants) rather than by species. Non-ruminant species tended to cluster more closely within species than to each other and were not as intermixed as ruminant results. Phylogenetic examination of the common and divergent banding populations should provide information to determine if there are suitable alternative organisms which may be used to track fecal pollution. Elucidation of novel organisms related to fecal contamination would potentially increase our ability to identify sources more accurately, thereby allowing the appropriate remediation response to be expeditiously selected.