ENVIRONMENTAL MYCOBACTERIA IN BOTTLED TABLE WATERS IN GREECE

A hundred and fifty samples of bottled table water sold by Greek facto ries were examined for the presence of environmental mycobacteria. Env ironmental mycobacteria were found in 23 (15.6%) of the 150 tested sam ples. Bacterial numbers of 1-100, 101-300, 301-1000, and > 10(3) CFU/L were found in 8, 2, 1, and 4% of the samples, respectively. The ident ification of the environmental mycobacteria was performed by both poly merase chain reaction-restriction enzyme analysis (PCR-REA) and bioche mical methods. The environmental mycobacteria found were 14 Mycobacter ium chelonae, 3 Mycobacterium phlei, 4 Mycobacterium gordonae, and 2 M ycobacterium flavescens. The relatively high number of environmental m ycobacteria in bottled table water leads us to believe that the search of these opportunistic microorganisms in bottled water could be a use ful index of their hygienic quality when this water is to be consumed by immunologically compromised patients. No statistically significant correlation was found between the presence of mycobacteria and the bac teriological faecal indicators (P < 0.005).