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Competitive Survival of Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella typhimurium and Shigella dysenteriae in Riverbed Sediments

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Studies on the survival of bacterial enteric pathogens in riverbed sediments have mostly focused on individual organisms. Reports on the competitive survival of these pathogens in riverbed sediments under the same experimental setup are limited. We investigated the survival of Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica ser. Typhimurium, Vibrio cholerae and Shigella dysenteriae in riverbed sediments of the Apies River. Experiments were performed in flow chambers containing three sediment types and connected to aquarium pumps immersed in river water to maintain continuous water circulation. Each chamber was inoculated with ~107 CFU/mL (final concentration) of each microorganism and kept at 4, 20 and 30 °C. Chambers were sampled on days 0, 1, 2, 7, 14 and 28. At 4 °C, only E. coli and S. typhimurium survived throughout the 28 experimental days. V. cholerae had the shortest survival time at this temperature and was not detected in any of the sediment chambers 24 h after inoculation. S. dysenteriae only survived until day 7. At an increased temperature of 20 °C, only S. dysenteriae was not detected on day 28 of the experiment. At 30 °C, V. cholerae and Salmonella survived longer (28 days) than E. coli (14 days) and S. dysenteriae (4 days). Vibrio cholerae was shown to have the highest T 90 values (32 days) in all sediment types at 20 and 30 °C. We conclude that the sediments of the Apies River present a favourable environment for the survival of indicator and pathogenic bacteria depending on the prevailing temperature.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Water Research Commission (WRC), South Africa (WRC Projects K5/2169 and K5/2147), the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) for funding. The authors also thank Dr. Pachepsky of the US Department of Agriculture for providing them with the design for the chambers. However, opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF, the WRC or TUT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental, Water and Earth Science, Tshwane University of Technology, Arcadia Campus, 175 Nelson Mandela Drive, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

    Akebe Luther King Abia & Maggy Ndombo Benteke Momba

  2. Natural Resources and the Environment, CSIR, PO Box 395, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

    Eunice Ubomba-Jaswa

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  1. Akebe Luther King Abia
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  2. Eunice Ubomba-Jaswa
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Correspondence to Akebe Luther King Abia or Maggy Ndombo Benteke Momba.

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Abia, A.L.K., Ubomba-Jaswa, E. & Momba, M.N.B. Competitive Survival of Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella typhimurium and Shigella dysenteriae in Riverbed Sediments. Microb Ecol 72, 881–889 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-016-0784-y

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