LABORATOIRE D'ECOLOGIE DES SYSTEMES AQUATIQUES

Main Research Topics - Health Related Microbiology
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Natural waters polluted by faecal discharge from man or animals may transport a large variety of human pathogenic micro-organisms (bacteria, viruses, protozoa). Because, the detection of all waterborne fecal pathogens is very tedious, the microbiological quality of waters is usually controlled by enumerating bacterial indicators such as coliforms which abundance indicates the level of contamination by fecal material.  
 

In this topic, ESA develops new methods to enumerate fecal bacteria in waters and studies the source of fecal bacteria and their fate in natural waters in order to develop models aiming to predict the level of fecal contamination.

ESA studies the fecal contamination in the Seine river and tributaries in the scope of PIREN Seine and Seine-Aval programs. In the latter project, the relationship between the abundance of fecal indicators and the presence of pathogens as Salmonella, Giardia and Cryptosporidium is also investigated.

ESA also collaborates with the University of Yaoundé (Cameroon) and La Havana (Cuba) on the contamination of ground and surface waters.

Main publications:
Garcia-Lara, J., Menon, P., Servais, P. & Billen, G., 1991. Mortality of fecal bacteria in seawater. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 57 : 885-888.

George, I., Crop, P. & Servais, P. 2002. Fecal coliforms removal in wastewater treatment plants studied by plate counts and enzymatic methods. Wat. Res. 36: 2607-2617.

George, I., M. Petit, C. Theate & P. Servais. 2001. Use of rapid enzymatic assays to study the distribution of fecal coliforms in the Seine river (France). Water Science and Technology. 43(12) : 77-80.

George, I., Crop, P. & Servais, P. 2001. Use of b-D-galactosidase and b-D-glucuronidase activities to estimate the microbiological contamination of wastewater. Can. J. Microbiol. 47 : 670-675.

George, I., M. Petit, C. Theate & P. Servais. 2001. Distribution of coliforms in the Seine river and estuary (France) Estuaries. 24 :984-1002.

George, I., M. Petit & P. Servais. 2000. Use of enzymatic methods for rapid enumeration of coliforms in freshwaters. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 88 : 404-413.

Petit, M., George, I. & Servais, P. 2000. Survival of Escherichia coli in freshwaters: b-D glucuronidase activity measurements ans characterization of cellular states. Canadian Journal of Microbiology. 46: 679-684.

Rompré, A., Servais, P., Baudart, J., De Roubin, M.R. & Laurent, P. 2002. Methods of detection and enumeration of coliforms in drinking water : a review. J. Microbiol. Methods. 49(1) : 31-54.