Molecular survey of occurrence and quantity of Legionella spp., Mycobacterium spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa and amoeba hosts in municipal drinking water storage tank sediments

Abstract

The results imply that opportunistic pathogen risks may need to be managed by regular tank cleaning or other management practices.

Public health implications of Acanthamoeba and multiple potential opportunistic pathogens in roof-harvested rainwater tanks

“…(NTM, including MAC) (Delafont et al, 2014;Valster et al, 2011). The presence of Acanthamoeba has been shown to correlate with that of Legionella (Lu et al, 2015), and more recently NTM (Delafont et al, 2014). No correlations of opportunistic pathogens with Acanthamoeba were demonstrated in this study.…”

“…No correlations of opportunistic pathogens with Acanthamoeba were demonstrated in this study. Previous studies noted correlations between opportunistic pathogens and Acanthamoeba in sediments, biofilms, or end-points of drinking water distribution systems (Lu et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015). However, rainwater tanks in this study typically have outlets 4150-300 mm from the bottom of the tank, so samples may not have gathered water from the region of the tank most prone to biofilm growth.…”

“…Opportunistic pathogens are of increasing public health importance and have been commonly observed in municipal water systems and water storage tanks in association with drinking water biofilms and sediments (Wang et al, 2012a;Lu et al, 2015). These conditions are likely to be comparable to those in rainwater storage tanks, which can receive direct sunlight as well as nutrients from roof-runoff that may be conducive to biofilm growth and, therefore, pathogen proliferation.…”

Assessment of Water Quality in Roof-Harvested Rainwater Barrels in Greater Philadelphia

“…In particular, the distance between the barrel spigot and the bottom of the barrel can impact the regrowth and transport of microorganisms contained in sediments within the barrel and the rate of transfer of sediments to the bulk water drawn from the barrel through the spigot; however no statistical associations between spigot distance and microbiological parameters were shown in this study. Sediments and biofilms may harbor opportunistic pathogens [61], and a smaller spigot distance could indicate an increased potential for pathogens to enter the outflowing water. In particular, biofilms and sediments combined with stagnant, warm waters can encourage pathogen (re)growth [16].…”

Molecular Detection of Legionella spp. and their associations with Mycobacterium spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa and amoeba hosts in a drinking water distribution system

“…Nonetheless, targeting total legionellae by qPCR may provide information for estimating the occurrence and quantity of a range of OPs, and is used to evaluate microbial water quality. For example, recently molecular methods have been applied to survey legionellae in chlorinated DWDSs in the USA and Australia (Wang et al 2012;Whiley et al 2014;Lu et al 2015) and unchlorinated drinking water supplies in the Netherlands (Wullings et al 2011). The purpose of the current study was to detect Legionella spp.…”