ArticleApplied and environmental microbiology2005
Validity of the indicator organism paradigm for pathogen reduction in reclaimed water and public health protection.
Article in Applied and environmental microbiology, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 128 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
128 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Meta-Analysis of the Reduction of Norovirus and Male-Specific Coliphage Concentrations in Wastewater Treatment Plants.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2015Pooled it
- A Bayesian Model for Estimation of Virus Reduction in Potable Reuse Treatment Trains and Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment of Waterborne Viral Pathogens.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2026Article
- First Wastewater-Based Surveillance of Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV) in Korea.Food and environmental virology · 2026Article
- Assessing Recreational Safety of Urban Marine Waters: Long-Term Coliform and Enterococcus Analysis.Water environment research : a research publication of the Water Environment Federation · 2026Article
- Chlorine-UV hybrid disinfection: a review on mechanisms and efficiency towards emerging pollutants.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2026Review
- Fungi as an emerging waterborne health concern: impact of treated wastewater dischargeEnvironmental science. Processes & impacts · 2025Article
- Towards the definition of treatment wetland pathogen log reduction credits.The Science of the total environment · 2024Review
- Microbial Treatment Targets for Potable and Nonpotable Water Reuse - A Comprehensive Update and Harmonization.Environmental science & technology letters · 2024Article
- What is the Difference between Conventional Drinking Water, Potable Reuse Water, and Nonpotable Reuse Water? A Microbiome Perspective.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- Comparison of mCP and TSC Media to EnumeratePolish journal of microbiology · 2023Article
- Enhanced detection of viruses for improved water safety.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- High-Throughput Microfluidic Quantitative PCR Platform for the Simultaneous Quantification of Pathogens, Fecal Indicator Bacteria, and Microbial Source Tracking Markers.ACS ES&T water · 2023Article
- Article
- Effectiveness of two wastewater disinfection strategies for the removal of fecal indicator bacteria, bacteriophage, and enteric viral pathogens concentrated using dead-end hollow fiber ultrafiltration (D-HFUF).The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Fecal indicators and antibiotic resistance genes exhibit diurnal trends in the Chattahoochee River: Implications for water quality monitoring.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Strategy to Evaluate Changes in Bacterial Community Profiles and Bacterial Pathogen Load Reduction After Sewage Disinfection.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Evaluating Fecal Indicator and Pathogen Relationships in Sewage Impacted Surface Waters to Blend with Reclaimed Water for Potable Reuse in North Carolina.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Human Polyomaviruses (HPyV) in Wastewater and Environmental Samples from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area: Detection and Genetic Characterization of Viral Structural Protein-Coding Sequences.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Assessment of the effects of seasonal changes, urban discharges and leachates on the parasitological and bacteriological qualities of soil and water from Oued Larbaâ (North-eastern, Morocco).Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2021Article
- Coliphages as Indicators for the Microbial Quality of Treated Wastewater Effluents.Food and environmental virology · 2021Article
68 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The validity of using indicator organisms (total and fecal coliforms, enterococci, Clostridium perfringens, and F-specific coliphages) to predict the presence or absence of pathogens (infectious enteric viruses, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia) was tested at six wastewater reclamation facilities. Multiple samplings conducted at each facility over a 1-year period. Larger sample volumes for indicators (0.2 to 0.4 liters) and pathogens (30 to 100 liters) resulted in more sensitive detection limits than are typical of routine monitoring. Microorganisms were detected in disinfected effluent samples at the following frequencies: total coliforms, 63%; fecal coliforms, 27%; enterococci, 27%; C. perfringens, 61%; F-specific coliphages, approximately 40%; and enteric viruses, 31%. Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts were detected in 70% and 80%, respectively, of reclaimed water samples. Viable Cryptosporidium, based on cell culture infectivity assays, was detected in 20% of the reclaimed water samples. No strong correlation was found for any indicator-pathogen combination. When data for all indicators were tested using discriminant analysis, the presence/absence patterns for Giardia cysts, Cryptosporidium oocysts, infectious Cryptosporidium, and infectious enteric viruses were predicted for over 71% of disinfected effluents. The failure of measurements of single indicator organism to correlate with pathogens suggests that public health is not adequately protected by simple monitoring schemes based on detection of a single indicator, particularly at the detection limits routinely employed. Monitoring a suite of indicator organisms in reclaimed effluent is more likely to be predictive of the presence of certain pathogens, and a need for additional pathogen monitoring in reclaimed water in order to protect public health is suggested by this study.
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