Investigation into the microbial contamination in a spring water distribution system, Western Cape, South Africa

The microbial contamination in a spring water distribution system in the Western Cape, South Africa was investigated. Sampling at various points from the spring and throughout the bottling system started in February and continued until November 2004. The number of culturable cells was determined using the heterotrophic plate count (HPC) and total microbial counts were evaluated by flow cytometric analysis (FCM). Heterotrophic plate counts in the final bottled water ranged from 1.34 x 10 8 cfu/ml (week 1) to 5 x 10 4 cfu/ml (week 46). In comparison, the total cell counts (FCM) ranged from 2.09 x 10 8 microorganisms/ml (week 1) to 5.70 x 10 7 microorganisms/ml (week 46).The higher FCM counts indicated that the flow cytometry technique was able to detect viable but non-culturable organisms in the water and was thus more reliable for the routine quantitative enumeration of microbial populations in water samples. 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) of the bacterial species present was amplified with PCR and phylogenetic trees were constructed using the neighbour-joining algorithm. The sequenced isolates from the various water samples belonged to the major groups Bacillus sp, and Enterobacteriaceae and included Shigella boydii, Serratia sp., Enterobacter asburiae and Pseudomonas sp.National Research Foundation (NRF) and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) for financial support