Abundance of Pathogenic Escherichia coli Virulence-Associated Genes in Well and Borehole Water Used for Domestic Purposes in a Peri-Urban Community of South Africa

Akebe Luther King Abia, Lisa Schaefer, Eunice Ubomba-Jaswa and Wouter Le Roux
Additional contact information
Akebe Luther King Abia: Departments of Biotechnology, Vaal University of Technology, Private Bag X021, Andries Potgieter Blvd, Vanderbijlpark 1911, South Africa
Lisa Schaefer: Natural Resources and the Environment, CSIR, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Eunice Ubomba-Jaswa: Natural Resources and the Environment, CSIR, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Wouter Le Roux: Natural Resources and the Environment, CSIR, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001, South Africa

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: In the absence of pipe-borne water, many people in Africa, especially in rural communities, depend on alternative water sources such as wells, boreholes and rivers for household and personal hygiene. Poor maintenance and nearby pit latrines, however, lead to microbial pollution of these sources. We evaluated the abundance of Escherichia coli and the prevalence of pathogenic E. coli virulence genes in water from wells, boreholes and a river in a South African peri-urban community. Monthly samples were collected between August 2015 and November 2016. In all, 144 water samples were analysed for E. coli using the Colilert 18 system. Virulence genes ( eagg , eaeA , stx1 , stx2 , flichH7 , ST , ipaH , ibeA ) were investigated using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Mean E. coli counts ranged between 0 and 443.1 Most Probable Number (MPN)/100 mL of water sample. Overall, 99.3% of samples were positive for at least one virulence gene studied, with flicH7 being the most detected gene (81/140; 57.6%) and the stx2 gene the least detected gene (8/140; 5.7%). Both intestinal and extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli genes were detected. The detection of virulence genes in these water sources suggests the presence of potentially pathogenic E. coli strains and is a public health concern.

Keywords: microbial quality; pathogenic Escherichia coli; virulence genes; boreholes; wells; public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/320/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/320/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:3:p:320-:d:93588

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().