COLIFORM BACTERIA
Know your water - to treat it right
Waterborne illness is caused by recreational or drinking water contaminated with disease-causing microbes or pathogens. Notably, many waterborne pathogens can also be ingested through contaminated food or beverages (4). With our planet facing severe climate challenges, including extreme weather, the risk to water quality has increased significantly. Therefore, continuous monitoring of water quality has never been more critical, along with ensuring minimal time from analysis to result.
Monitoring the hygienic quality of water typically involves detecting indicator bacteria, such as coliform bacteria, Escherichia coli, and enterococci as examples (1). These indicators have traditionally been identified through culture-based methods, requiring 18 to 48 hours for results (1,2). The main problem with this approach is that it provides information on past events, which has limited value as a real-time decision-making tool for proactive public health protection (2).
With increasing awareness of the severity of waterborne diseases (5) and the impact of extreme weather on water quality, rapid estimation of microbiological water quality is essential (2). Beyond detection speed, the quality and sensitivity of water analysis are critical. It's one thing to assess whether bacteria are present, but it’s another to determine if the bacteria are viable and constitute a genuine health risk.
Rapid methods for detecting coliform bacteria in water are now available on the market. Colifast, for example, offers the Colifast Field Kit, which can detect contamination in under two hours, providing an early warning for contaminated samples. However, a common limitation of these rapid methods is sensitivity—they indicate bacterial presence but cannot confirm whether the bacteria are viable and potentially harmful.
To address this, Colifast has developed instruments capable of detecting viable bacteria: the Colifast At-Line Monitor (CALM) and the Colifast ALARM. These instruments use a growth-based method, allowing bacteria to grow within the instrument. Although this approach is slower than rapid tests, it is still significantly faster than traditional methods and delivers more accurate, precise results, ensuring that detected bacteria are viable and could pose a health threat.
The primary difference between rapid methods and growth-based methods lies in their capacity to detect viable bacteria. Only by growing the bacteria can we confirm they are alive and potentially harmful.
Colifast technology stands out for two main reasons: (1) Our growth medium is specifically sensitive to E. coli and coliforms found in the feces of warm-blooded animals, while excluding coliforms typically found in soil and vegetation. This distinction provides a more accurate indication of bacterial contamination relevant to human health. (2) Our instruments utilize a growth-based method that measures a fluorescent product produced by coliform bacteria grown in the Colifast medium, enabling users to determine whether bacteria in a water sample are viable (alive).
The Colifast CALM and ALARM are both instruments that are fully automated and need minimal maintenance. Additionally, no laboratory facilities or microbial skills are necessary to use the instruments.
To read in more detail about the Colifast Growth medium, press the read more button
Sources used:
(1)Tryland, I., Braathen, H., Wennberg, A. C., Eregno, F., & Beschorner, A.-L. (2002). Monitoring of β-D-Galactosidase Activity as a Surrogate Parameter for Rapid Detection of Sewage Contamination in Urban Recreational Water.
(2)Tryland, I., Samset, I. D., Hermansen, L., Berg, J. D., & Rydberg, H. (2016). Early warning of faecal contamination of water: a dual mode, automated system for high- (<1 hour) and low-levels (6–11 hours).
(3) https://data.unicef.org/topic/water-and-sanitation/drinking-water/
(4) https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/waterborne/basics.html