Faecal Coliform Bacteria in Febros River (Northwest Portugal): Temporal Variation, Correlation with Water Parameters, and Species Identification

Febros river water was sampled weekly, during 35 successive weeks, and analyzed for microbiological (total coliforms, faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci and enterococci) and chemical-physical (ammonia and temperature) parameters. All microbiological parameters were highly correlated with each other and with ammonia, suggesting that the simultaneous determination of all variables currently in use in the evaluation of the microbiological quality of waters is probably redundant, and could be simplified, and that ammonia should be tested as a sentinel parameter of the microbiological pollution load of Febros river. From the strains isolated from positive tubes of the faecal coliforms test (multiple tube fermentation technique) and retested in this assay, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella oxytoca and Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae strains were positive, indicating that the faecal coliforms test is not totally specific for Escherichia coli, and can detect other bacteria. Considering that these Klebsiella spp. are not necessarily of faecal origin, it was concluded that the faecal coliforms test can overestimate true faecal pollution. From the strains isolated from positive tubes of the faecal coliforms procedure, only Escherichia coli strains were clearly positive in the β-D-glucuronidase test. All other species were negative or very weakly positive, suggesting that the assay of the β-D-glucuronidase activity is less prone to false positives than the faecal coliforms test in the quantification of Escherichia coli in environmental waters.