Using Zebra Mussels to Monitor Escherichia coli in Environmental Waters

Abstract

Use of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) as an indicator of previously elevated bacteria concentrations in a watershed was examined. The ability of the zebra mussel to accumulate and purge Escherichia coli over several days was investigated in both laboratory and field experiments. In laboratory experiments, periodic enumeration of E. coli in mussels that had been exposed to a dilute solution of raw sewage demonstrated that (i) maximum concentrations of E. coli are reached within a few hours of exposure to sewage, (ii) the tissue concentration attained is higher than the concentration in the ambient water, and (iii) the E. coli concentrations take several days to return to preexposure concentrations when mussels are subsequently placed in sterile water. In field experiments conducted in southeast Michigan in the Clinton River watershed, brief increases in E. coli concentrations in the water were accompanied by increases in mussel concentrations of E. coli that lasted 2 or 3 d. The ability of mussels to retain and to concentrate E. coli made it possible to detect E. coli in the environment under conditions that conventional monitoring may often miss. Sampling caged mussels in a river and its tributaries may enable watershed managers to reduce the sampling frequency normally required to identify critical E. coli sources, thereby providing a more cost-effective river monitoring strategy for bacterial contamination.

Removal of enteric viruses and Escherichia coli from municipal treated effluent by zebra mussels

“…Although in studies regarding enterobacterial removal from wastewater by D. polymorpha a 50% reduction was found after 24 h and almost 100% after 48 h (Selegean et al, 2001), our results showed a reduction of already 83.1% and 98.6% at T 4 and T 2 4, respectively, and almost 100% at T 48 . In the control samples, where zebra mussels were absent, the overtime decrease in E. coli colonies was slower, and can be due to the inactivation by toxic factors present in the wastewater.…”

Terrestrial support of zebra mussels and the Hudson River food web: A multi‐isotope, Bayesian analysis

“…Thus, terrestrial DOM via bacteria could be quite important to either zebra mussels or zooplankton. It is widely known that zooplankton can assimilate bacteria (Jansson et al 2007), and bacterial consumption by zebra mussels has been observed in the lab (Selegean et al 2001). That the zooplankton in the Hudson directly consume significant material of terrestrial origin would be consistent with laboratory studies that have shown that Daphnia can grow and reproduce on mixtures of terrestrial leaves and phytoplankton or on microbially colonized pollen grains alone (Brett et al 2009;Masclaux et al 2011).…”

Bioaccumulation of pathogenic bacteria and amoeba by zebra mussels and their presence in watercourses

“…and pathogenic protozoa (Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis, and Acanthamoeba spp.). Data about protozoa bioaccumulation by zebra mussels have been reported (Graczyk et al 2001(Graczyk et al , 2004Palos Ladeiro et al 2014), but as far as we know, the accumulation of other bacteria apart from E. coli has not been studied (Selegean et al 2001).…”