Annual variations and effects of temperature on Legionella spp. and other potential opportunistic pathogens in a bathroom
Opportunistic pathogens (OPs) in drinking water, like Legionella spp., mycobacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa , and free-living amobae (FLA) are a risk to human health, due to their post-treatment growth in water systems. To assess and manage these risks, it is necessary to understand their variations...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Environmental science and pollution research international 2017-01, Vol.24 (3), p.2326-2336 |
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Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | Opportunistic pathogens (OPs) in drinking water, like
Legionella
spp., mycobacteria,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
, and free-living amobae (FLA) are a risk to human health, due to their post-treatment growth in water systems. To assess and manage these risks, it is necessary to understand their variations and environmental conditions for the water routinely used. We sampled premise tap (
N
cold
= 26,
N
hot
= 26) and shower (
N
shower
= 26) waters in a bathroom and compared water temperatures to levels of OPs via qPCR and identified
Legionella
spp. by 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing. The overall occurrence and cell equivalent quantities (CE L
−1
) of
Mycobacterium
spp. were highest (100 %, 1.4 × 10
5
), followed by
Vermamoeba vermiformis
(91 %, 493),
Legionella
spp. (59 %, 146),
P. aeruginosa
(14 %, 10), and
Acanthamoeba
spp. (5 %, 6). There were significant variations of OP’s occurrence and quantities, and water temperatures were associated with their variations, especially for
Mycobacterium
spp.,
Legionella
spp., and
V. vermiformis
. The peaks observed for
Legionella
, mainly consisted of
Legionella pneumophila
sg1 or
Legionella anisa
, occurred in the temperature ranged from 19 to 49 °C, while
Mycobacterium
spp. and
V. vermiformis
not only co-occurred with
Legionella
spp. but also trended to increase with increasing temperatures. There were higher densities of
Mycobacterium
in first than second draw water samples, indicating their release from faucet/showerhead biofilm.
Legionella
spp. were mostly at detectable levels and mainly consisted of
L. pneumophila
,
L. anisa
,
Legionella donaldsonii
,
Legionella tunisiensis
, and an unknown drinking water isolate based on sequence analysis. Results from this study suggested potential health risks caused by opportunistic pathogens when exposed to warm shower water with low chlorine residue and the use of
Mycobacterium
spp. as an indicator of premise pipe biofilm and the control management of those potential pathogens. |
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ISSN: | 0944-1344 1614-7499 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s11356-016-7921-5 |