Journal of Environmental Biology

Distribution of potentially pathogenic enteric bacteria in coastal sea

waters along the Southern Kerala coast, India

Author Details

V.S. Sudhanandh

(Corresponding author)

Microbiology Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Akkulam,

Thiruvananthapuram - 695 031, India

e-mail: sudhanandhvs@gmail.com

P. Udayakumar

Microbiology Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 031, India

A.K. Faisal

Microbiology Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 031, India

V.P. Potty

CEPC Laboratory and Technical Division, The Cashew Export Promotion Council of India,

Ponnamma Chambers-II, Kollam - 695 031, India

P.P. Ouseph

Microbiology Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 031, India

V. Prasanthan

Microbiology Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 031, India

K. Narendra Babu

Microbiology Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division, Centre for Earth Science Studies, Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 031, India

Publication Data

Paper received:

05 July 2010

Revised received:

16 February 2011

Accepted:

26 February 2011

Abstract

This study evaluated the relationship between the traditional indicators of faecal pollution, total coliforms (TC), faecal coliforms (FC) and Faecal streptococci (FS), and the presence of few potentially pathogenic enteric bacteria, Vibrio cholerae (VC), Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VP), Shigella spp. (SH) and Salmonella spp. (SL) in coastal sea water. The distributional statuses of these bacteria were also studied along the Southern Kerala coast. Cluster analyses were done to identify similar groups of indicator as well as enteric pathogenic bacteria. Kochi was found to be highly polluted with enteric pathogens and indicator bacteria (TC of 4700, VC of 820, FC of 920 and FS of 410 CFU ml^-1). Percentage incidence of VC (97.42%) was comparatively higher than the traditional indicator bacteria (TC 95.04%, FC of 63.64% and FS of 47.64%). VC found to be rather stable and showed significant relationship with all the traditional indicator bacteria (R^? > 0.370), suggests that both quantitatively and qualitatively the abundance of Vibrio cholerae can determine faecal pollution, could be used as a faecal pollution indicator bacterium, especially in the marine environment where traditional indicator bacteria failed to survive. It would be advisable to always perform the detection of SH and VP beside the traditional indicators as no significant relationship (R^?<0.076, p>0.05) exists among them.

Key words

Faecal pollution, Pathogenic enteric bacteria, Vibrio cholerae, Southern Kerala coast

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