EVALUATION OF A SIMPLE SCREENING-TEST FOR FECAL POLLUTION IN WATER

Manja et al. developed a simple test to detect waterborne hydrogen sul phide-producing bacteria as indicators of faecal pollution. We compare d this test to six others for faecal coliforms, total coliforms and Cl ostridium perfringens. Agreement with total coliform results ranged fr om 92.9% to 98.9%. Agreement with faecal coliform results ranged from 85.7% to 94.4%. Agreement with C. perfringens results ranged from 71.4 % to 80.0%. The hydrogen sulphide test demonstrated positive results i n samples containing small numbers of traditional indicator bacteria. Inoculation of the test medium with 1-2 cells of known hydrogen sulphi de-producing cultures yielded a positive reaction in 24-40 h at 30 deg rees C.