Research Project 3: Assessment of Microbial Indicators

研究项目3：微生物指标评估

• 批准号: 6751036
• 负责人: Helena Solo-Gabriele
• 金额: $ 7.9万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI ROSENTEIL SCHOOL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-09-01 至 2008-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6751036
• 关键词: Clostridium perfringens; Enterococcus; Escherichia coli; Giardia; Norwalk virus; biohazard detection; clinical research; communicable diseases; epidemiology; hepatitis A virus; high throughput technology; hot climate; human subject; marine biology; public health; recreation; water microbiology; water quality; water sampling /testing

Microbial water quality indicators are found in high concentrations in sewage, and are thus used to determine whether or not a water body is safe for recreational purposes. Recently, concerns have been raised about the appropriate use of microbial indicators to regulate recreational uses of water bodies. This is particularly true for water bodies located in sub/tropical environments, due to the potential for microbial regrowth in sub/tropics, and the fact that studies used to set national guidelines were not conducted in sub/tropical environments. The primary goal of this proposed study is to evaluate the relationship between human health, and the physical and microbial characteristics of a coastal water and its shoreline. This goal will be addressed by measuring human health effects and microbial water quality at a recreational beach site within a sub/tropical climate, and by developing a predictive, coupled hydrodynamic and microbial fate model that can be used to distinguish impacts from sewage sources versus regrowth of microbes, each of these sources possibly resulting in different health effects as observed at the beach site. Substantial pilot data have been collected for the sub/tropical study site chosen for this research. These pilot data, as well as the literature, indicate that exposure to contaminated recreational marine waters may result in human health effects, and that the shoreline sediments is one likely source of indicator microbes. Human health will be evaluated in the proposed project through an epidemiologic study which will randomly assign exposure to water or beach with coordinated individual environmental sampling and repeated follow up of reported human health effects. Water quality will be evaluated through two sets of environmental measurements. The first phase of the environmental assessment will focus on identifying the distribution and sources of enterococci (the current federally recommended indicator microbe) within the study site. Enterococci will be monitored through an intensive effort aimed at identifying sources, in particular shoreline sources, and correlations with suspended sediment concentrations. The data gathered from this intensive sampling effort will be used to develop source functions for an enterococci fate model to be coupled with a hydrodynamic oceanographic model developed for the area. The coupled enterococci model will be used in a predictive fashion to determine when and where within the study beach the epidemiologic study should take place. The second phase of environmental measurements will focus on the analysis of multiple microbes coincident with times that participants participate in the epidemiologic study. Microbe measurements will include traditional (enterococci, E. coli, fecal coliform) and non-traditional (C. perfringens, coliphage) microbial indicators, as well as direct measurement of microbial pathogens (S. aureus, enterovirus, Norwalk virus, hepatitis A, C. parvum, and G. lamblia). Analysis of the viral and protozoan pathogens will include traditional PCR and results will be cross-checked against new Luminex technology. A primary goal of this research is to develop a rapid (same day), accurate high throughput and sensitive molecular test for the identification of pathogenic microorganisms in marine and freshwater environments. The Remote Sensing Core and the Genomics Core will participate in this proposed interdisciplinary collaborative research study. The results from the coupled hydrodynamic and microbial fate model will be compared with the pathogen and human health data for the purposes of predicting beach closures due to health hazards. Ultimately, the human, environmental and oceanographic data will be used to develop a predictive model with broad applicability to beaches in the sub/tropics with appropriate modifications for local conditions. The final result will be the improvement of recreational water quality monitoring in the sub/tropical marine environment, and an increase in public confidence in the results from microbial water quality monitoring and modeling.

污水中含有高浓度的微生物水质指标，因此可用于确定水体对于娱乐目的是否安全。最近，人们对适当使用微生物指标来调节水体的娱乐用途提出了担忧。对于位于亚/热带环境的水体来说尤其如此，因为亚/热带地区微生物有再生的潜力，而且用于制定国家指南的研究并不是在亚/热带环境中进行的。这项研究的主要目标是评估人类健康与身体和健康之间的关系 沿海水域及其海岸线的微生物特征。这一目标将通过测量亚热带气候下的休闲海滩地点的人类健康影响和微生物水质来实现，并开发一个预测性的、耦合的水动力和微生物命运模型，该模型可用于区分污水源的影响与微生物的再生，这些来源中的每一个都可能导致在海滩地点观察到的不同的健康影响。为本研究选择的亚/热带研究地点已经收集了大量试点数据。这些试点数据以及文献表明，接触受污染的休闲海水可能会对人类健康产生影响，并且海岸线沉积物是指示微生物的可能来源之一。在拟议的项目中，将通过流行病学研究来评估人类健康，该研究将随机分配对水或海滩的暴露情况，协调个人环境采样，并重复跟踪报告的人类健康影响。水质将通过两组环境测量进行评估。环境评估的第一阶段将重点确定分布和 研究地点内肠球菌（当前联邦推荐的指示微生物）的来源。将通过集中努力监测肠球菌，旨在确定来源，特别是海岸线来源以及与悬浮沉积物浓度的相关性。从这次密集采样工作中收集的数据将用于开发肠球菌命运模型的源函数，以便与为该地区开发的水动力海洋学模型相结合。耦合肠球菌模型将以预测方式使用，以确定应在研究海滩内何时何地进行流行病学研究。环境测量的第二阶段将重点分析与参与者参与流行病学研究的时间一致的多种微生物。微生物测量将包括传统（肠球菌、大肠杆菌、粪大肠菌）和非传统（产气荚膜梭菌、大肠杆菌噬菌体）微生物指标，以及微生物病原体（金黄色葡萄球菌、肠道病毒、诺瓦克病毒、甲型肝炎、小球菌和兰伯利亚杆菌）的直接测量。病毒和原生动物病原体的分析将包括传统的 PCR，结果将与新的 Luminex 技术进行交叉检查。这项研究的主要目标是开发一种快速（当天）、准确的高通量和灵敏的分子测试，用于鉴定海洋和淡水环境中的病原微生物。遥感核心和基因组学核心将参与这项拟议的跨学科合作研究。耦合流体动力学和微生物命运模型的结果将与病原体和微生物进行比较 人类健康数据，用于预测因健康危害而关闭的海滩。最终，人类、环境和海洋学数据将用于开发一个广泛适用于亚/热带海滩的预测模型，并根据当地条件进行适当修改。最终结果将是改善亚热带海洋环境中的娱乐水质监测，并提高公众对微生物水质监测和建模结果的信心。