Spårning av fekal förorening med hjälp av mikroorganismer / Microbial source-tracking of faecal pollution
During heavy rainfall and combined sewer overflow events, a lot of pathogenic microorganisms are released into our waterbodies. To be able to calculate the health risks properly, it is important to know the source of the contamination. While zoonoses such as Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium and enterohaemmorragic E. coli (EHEC) can be spread from animals to humans, human enteric viruses have a narrower host range and are mainly transmitted between humans. Further, faecal contamination leads to eutrophication and degradation of surface waters. Thus, it is also important to determine the source of pollution from an environmental point of view. Internationally a lot of research in the field of microbial source-tracking is taking place. The problems with the methods of today, however, are that they 1) only exists on a developing stage, 2) are expensive, 3) are not discriminative and 4) are not sensitive enough. In this article, different methods and their possibilities to be used as source-trackers are discussed, as well as what research that is recently taking place in Sweden.