Concepts of fecal streptococci in stream pollution.

Abstract

Occurrence of fecal streptococci is used increasingly as one bacteriologi cal measurement of stream pollution. Yet the true sanitary significance of fecal streptococci has been confused somewhat by controversies concerning procedures for quantitation, definition of the group, and differing concepts as to their occurrence in the water en vironment and in warm-blooded ani mal fecal discharges. Interest in the use of streptococci as a pollution indi cator is not new. Houston and other bacteriologists (1) (2), as early as 1900, reported observing that strepto cocci were present consistently in the feces of all warm-blooded animals and in the water associated with such ani mal discharges. Winslow and Palmer (3) noted that use of these strepto cocci might assist in differentiating be tween human and other animal pollu tion. The literature, however, indi cates little application of their obser vations in this country until improved methods for detection and enumeration appeared in recent years. This renewed interest in the strep tococcal group as a pollution indicator followed the evaluation of Rothe's azide dextrose broth by Malimann and Seligmann (4) in water and waste water analysis with the use of a mul tiple tube procedure. Litzky et al. (5) later found it necessary to confirm the