Salmonella: the forgotten pathogen: health hazards of compliance with European bathing water legislation.
The increasing demands on recreational waters have made microbial contamination a matter of public and scientific concern. This study aimed to search for Salmonella spp. in waters classified according EU Directive 2006/7/EC, in order to assess associations between its prevalence and the concentration of the non-pathogenic new faecal indicators: Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci. Although a statistically significant association was observed Salmonella was detected on beaches classified as "Good" (9.3%) and "Excellent" (14.4%) which compromises the idea that faecal indicators can be predictors of pathogens. Attending the high prevalence of Salmonella found (23.1%) it seemed important to improve the efficiency of the conventional analytical method (ISO 6340:1995), comparing its draft with SML-VIDAS Salmonella and two new chromogenic media: AES Salmonella Agar Plate (ASAP) and Simple Method Salmonella (SMS). ASAP showed the higher efficiency and can be recommended for a faster detection and presumptive identification of salmonellae in bathing waters.
National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Rua Alexandre Herculano 321, 4000-055 Porto, Portugal; Requimte, University of Porto, Portugal. catarinamansilha@gmail.com <catarinamansilha@gmail.com>
Catarina R
CR
Mansilha
Carla A
CA
Coelho
Alcina
A
Reinas
Ana
A
Moutinho
Sónia
S
Ferreira
C
C
Pizarro
António
A
Tavares
D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001493:Bathing Beaches / Q000592:standards*; D002863:Chromogenic Compounds; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008828:Microbiological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D011174:Portugal; D012475:Salmonella / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014871:Water Microbiology / Q000592:standards*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control*
D002863:Chromogenic Compounds