Detection and occurrence of indicator organisms and pathogens

Abstract

This review paper focuses on detection and quantification techniques of indicator organisms that can be used for water quality assessment. The environmental pathogens that are critical to understand and better evaluate water quality are also discussed in this paper. Several recent studies using culture‐independent methods such as microbial source tracking, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, mitochondrial DNA, and next generation sequencing to assess various environmental samples and water bodies have been reviewed.

Practitioner points

• Various waterborne pathogens and cases of outbreak occurances due to presence of pathogens are studied in this review paper.

• Recent studies for detecting major indicator organisms to evaluate the presence of pathogens in water bodies are reviewed.

• Culture‐independent techniques as robust tools to detect and quantify waterborne pathogens are discussed in this review paper.

Abstract

Characterization of indicator organisms and microbial source tracking are robust tools, which can detect the potential pathogens and contribute to classify microorganisms based on their phenotypic or genotypic fingerprints. Microbial source tracking incorporates genetic sequences (called as markers) unique to specific bacterial or viral species from specific animal hosts, which conveys insight into sources of fecal contamination.