title: A new method for tracking poultry litter in the Potomac Basin headwaters of West Virginia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To validate the distribution of a poultry litter-specific marker gene in faecally contaminated environmental waters of an intensive poultry litter rearing region.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A TaqMan(®)-based qPCR assay for Brevibacterium sp. LA35 16S rRNA (LA35 gene), which was previously shown to be associated with poultry litter and faeces, was tested on 126 nontarget faecal samples and 28 poultry litter and faecal samples. The TaqMan assay was sensitive (76%) and specific (100%) to the LA35 gene and exhibited a detection limit for poultry litter in water samples that is sufficiently low (2.5 × 10(-2) mg litter l(-1)) to be applicable for environmental monitoring. The LA35 gene was detected in 43% of water samples (n = 30) collected in an intensive poultry rearing region of West Virginia which drains to the Chesapeake Bay.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The poultry-specific TaqMan qPCR method for the LA35 gene is more specific than previously published methods and can be used to identify regions impacted by poultry rearing activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The LA35 gene appears to have a broad geographical distribution as it has been found in poultry litter and faeces from Delaware and West Virginia, in this study and from Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Utah previously.
authors.affiliation: Civil and Environmental Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA. jennifer.weidhaas@mail.wvu.edu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weidhaas
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lipscomb
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001951:Brevibacterium / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D011200:Poultry / Q000382:microbiology*; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D045483:Rivers / Q000382:microbiology*; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014903:West Virginia
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D014873:Water Pollutants
keywords: Brevibacterium sp. LA35; Potomac River Basin; microbial source tracking; poultry litter; qPCR