Accurate assessment of health risks associated with bovine (cattle) fecal pollution requires a reliable host-specific genetic marker and a rapid quantification method. We report the development of quantitative PCR assays for the detection of two recently described bovine feces-specific genetic markers and a method for the enumeration of these markers using a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. Both assays exhibited a range of quantification from 25 to 2 ؋ 10 6 copies of target DNA, with a coefficient of variation of <2.1%. One of these assays can be multiplexed with an internal amplification control to simultaneously detect the bovine-specific genetic target and presence of amplification inhibitors. The assays detected only cattle fecal specimens when tested against 204 fecal DNA extracts from 16 different animal species and also demonstrated a broad distribution among individual bovine samples (98 to 100%) collected from five geographically distinct locations. The abundance of each bovine-specific genetic marker was measured in 48 individual samples and compared to quantitative PCR-enumerated quantities of rRNA gene sequences representing total Bacteroidetes, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, and enterococci in the same specimens. Acceptable assay performance combined with the prevalence of DNA targets across different cattle populations provides experimental evidence that these quantitative assays will be useful in monitoring bovine fecal pollution in ambient waters.

Previously reported and redesigned primer and probe assays were evaluated for the quantitative analysis of the fecal indicator bacterial groups, Enterococcus and Bacteroidetes with three realtime PCR instrument and reagent systems. The efficiency and sensitivity of the original assays varied between systems in analyses of DNA extracts from pure cultures of Enterococcus faecalis and Bacteroides fragilis, whereas the modified assays gave more consistent results. Distinctions between original and modified assays also occurred in analyses of known spike levels of E. faecalis and B. fragilis cells on filters with diverse surface water retentates. Percentages of samples causing PCR failures due to inhibition were lower using the modified assays. The accuracy and precision of spiked bacteria measurements were also generally higher, although mean measurements of both target organisms were still significantly different between systems (p , 0.05). The accuracy and precision of spiked bacteria measurements by both modified assays were further improved using a new sample matrix control spike consisting of cultured Lactococcus lactis cells and a reference assay for this organism. Corrections provided by the L. lactis assay eliminated significant differences in E. faecalis measurements between all three systems and between two of the three systems in B. fragilis measurements.