Presence of <i>Arcobacter</i> spp. in environmental waters correlates with high levels of fecal pollution

Abstract

We investigated the presence of Arcobacter spp. in 205 water samples of freshwater, seawater and sewage in Spain. These bacteria were present in 55.1% of the samples (113/205) and were significantly associated for the first time with bacterial indicators of fecal pollution. The dominant species in the positive samples was Arcobacter butzleri (94%) followed by Arcobacter cryaerophilus (30%) and Arcobacter skirrowii (1.8%).