Grantee Research Project Results
2013 Progress Report: Rapidly Measured Indicators of Waterborne Pathogens
EPA Grant Number: R834789Title: Rapidly Measured Indicators of Waterborne Pathogens
Investigators: Dorevitch, Samuel , Bushon, Rebecca N , Lin, King-Teh , Liu, Li , Scheff, Peter , Cali, Salvatore
Institution: University of Illinois at Chicago , MycoMetrics , USGS Biological Resources Division
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: February 1, 2011 through January 31, 2014 (Extended to January 31, 2015)
Project Period Covered by this Report: February 1, 2013 through January 31,2014
Project Amount: $499,831
RFA: Exploring Linkages Between Health Outcomes and Environmental Hazards, Exposures, and Interventions for Public Health Tracking and Risk Management (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health
Objective:
Escherichia coli and other bacteria are measured as part of the beach monitoring and notification programs. The microbes measured are referred to as “indicators”–they themselves typically don’t cause disease, but when they are found in high concentration, the presence pathogens (the microbes that do cause disease) is likely and the risk of illness is elevated. The focus of this research is the evaluation of emerging methods for rapidly measuring indicators in Chicago area lakes and rivers used for recreation.
The overall goal of this research is to evaluate established and emerging methods for measuring microbes in lakes and rivers used for water recreation. The research team is meeting this overall goal through three specific activities: (1) The analysis of water samples using “qPCR”, a method that generates results in a few hours, rather than the 24 hours required for conventional tests. The results of qPCR and other rapid tests will be compared to one another in their ability to predict the presence of Giardia and Cryptosporidium, two pathogenic microbes that cause waterborne disease. (2) An evaluation of measuring microbes at beaches twice per day using rapid methods, rather than the usual once per day using conventional methods. (3) The analysis of beach management decisions that result from the use of the twice daily rapid measures of water quality in comparison to culture methods.
Progress Summary:
In order to evaluate new indicators, we have conducted experiments to determine how accurate the indicator tests are. We also evaluated how well each indicator predicts the presence of two pathogens: Giardia and Cryptosporidium, which have caused outbreaks of waterborne disease in the United States. The research has generated answers about the performance characteristics of a suite of microbial indicators of water quality. While no single method clearly stands out as superior on all metrics, the qPCR method, which measures the DNA of bacteria (EPA’s new Method 1611) and a new method for detecting coliphage, an indicator virus) have several advantages over the other methods in terms of sensitivity (ability to detect indicators at very low concentration), precision, and accuracy. The qPCR method generates results more quickly than the coliphage test. Additionally, we determined that none of the indicators is particularly good at predicting the presence of the protozoan pathogen, Cryptosporidium. However, the presence of Giardia can be predicted fairly well. Among the indicators, enterococci measured by the qPCR method has superior predictive value for identifying Giardia presence than other indicators.
Future Activities:
We will complete the data analyses that will characterize relationships between additional molecular targets of indicator bacteria as predictors of viral and protozoan pathogens. We will also complete data analyses of indicators of water quality as predictors of illness occurrence and illness severity among water recreators. The findings of these analyses will be prepared for publication.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 11 publications | 4 publications in selected types | All 4 journal articles |
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Yavuz BM, Jones RM, DeFlorio-Barker S, Vannoy E, Dorevitch S. Receiver-operating characteristics analysis: a new approach to predicting the presence of pathogens in surface waters. Environmental Science & Technology 2014;48(10):5628-5635. |
R834789 (2013) R834789 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Waterborne disease, gastrointestinal illness, water pollution, water quality, indicator bacteria, PCR, polymerase chain reactionProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.