Abstract
Bacteriophages are promising tools for the detection of fecal pollution in different environments, and particularly for viral pathogen risk assessment. Having similar morphological and biological characteristics, bacteriophages mimic the fate and transport of enteric viruses. Enteric bacteriophages, especially phages infecting Escherichia coli (coliphages), have been proposed as alternatives or complements to fecal indicator bacteria. Here, we provide a general overview of the potential use of enteric bacteriophages as fecal and viral indicators in different environments, as well as the available methods for their detection and enumeration, and the regulations for their application.
Highlights
The third group of bacteriophages proposed as indicators infect Bacteroides spp. and their concentrations in feces or fecally contaminated samples are usually lower compared to coliphages [37]
CrAssphage have been found in several animal sources, so further research is required on possible animal-associated variants or specific genome regions more suitable for animal source discrimination [58,59]. They have stronger environmental persistence than bacteria and higher concentrations than enteric viruses in sewage worldwide, allowing a more accurate description of virus removal [60,61,62]. These characteristics make crAssphage a very promising alternative as indicator microorganisms of viral fecal pollution, which could be used in microbial source tracking (MST) for monitoring human fecal pollution of water [63,64,65]
The number of samples positive for E. coli was slightly higher compared to somatic coliphages (50% and 40%, respectively); 20% of cucumber samples were positive for coliphages and none contained E. coli [152]
Summary
The most commonly used are fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), including total coliforms, fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, streptococci and enterococci [3] One of their drawbacks is that they do not provide information on the source of fecal contamination, being frequently found in the microbiota of many animals. They correlate poorly with human viruses or parasites pathogens in natural aquatic environments and WWTPs, displaying different behavior and lower survival rates [3].
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