Integrated Analysis of Established and Novel Microbial and Chemical

Several microbes and chemicals have been considered as potential tracers to identify fecal sources in the environment. However, to date, no one approach has been shown to accurately identify the origins of fecal pollution in aquatic environments. In this multilaboratory study, different microbial and chemical indicators were analyzed in order to distinguish human fecal sources from nonhuman fecal sources using wastewaters and slurries from diverse geographical areas within Europe. Twenty-six parameters, which were later combined to form derived variables for statistical analyses, were obtained by performing methods that were achievable in all the participant laboratories: enumeration of fecal coliform bacteria, enterococci, clostridia, somatic co-liphages, F-specific RNA phages, bacteriophages infecting Bacteroides fragilis RYC2056 and Bacteroides theta-iotaomicron GA17, and total and sorbitol-fermenting bifidobacteria; genotyping of F-specific RNA phages