USE OF 2 PRESENCE ABSENCE SYSTEMS FOR THE DETECTION OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI AND COLIFORMS FROM WATER/

The Colilert system presence/absence test and LMX broth were compared for their ability to recover E. roll and coliforms from water, Both me thods gave similar recoveries for both groups of organisms. The LMX sy stem, however, gave a significant number of false positives, largely d ue to the presence of Aeromonas spp. It is concluded that care must be taken in the interpretation of results obtained using some presence/a bsence methods where no confirmation of the identity of bacteria is pe rformed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd