Collaborative Research: Quantifying and Correlating Pathogens and a Poultry Feces Marker Gene in Environmental Waters

1234366/1234237 Weidhaas/Harwood根据《清洁水法》第303(D)条，超过10,000个美国水体因粪便污染而受损，粪便指示性细菌证明了这一点。农业做法，包括每年约16亿公斤家禽粪便(受污染的垫料)作为肥料在土地上传播，是2008年美国水质受损的主要可能来源。家禽粪便(被粪便污染的垫料)含有病原体，当陆地上使用的家禽成分在风暴期间流失时，这些病原体可能会影响环境水域。由于计划使用家禽粪便作为肥料，以及在某些情况下管理不善，水质恶化导致监管行动(损害)、富营养化、生态系统结构改变和鱼类死亡。微生物来源示踪方法可用于更准确地确定水体损害的来源，并绕过基于粪便指示细菌的病原体监测和粪便污染源识别的已知问题和不足。检测一种动物粪便特有的微生物，也就是。通过允许流域管理者只调查和补救最有可能的排泄物污染源，接受水的一个标志加强了环境管理。开发和验证快速方法以最终确定陆地上的家禽粪便是否在径流中，是全美流域管理的关键需求。监管机构和其他关注水质海滩建议/关闭、TMDL制定和受污染水道修复的机构广泛寻求这些方法。本研究将对1)家禽产仔标志基因S与来源于家禽粪便的病原菌和粪便指示菌的相关性以及2)该标记基因和人类病原体在环境相关条件下的去向、运输和失活进行批判性评估。将进行具体研究，以确定家禽窝窝相关病原体、粪便指示菌和源自短杆菌属16S rRNA基因的家禽窝窝标志之间的相关性和存活率。LA35.这些研究将在受污染的家禽粪便和粪便中进行，在模拟环境暴露的实验室中微体中进行，并在野外规模的模拟降雨径流研究中进行。在这项研究完成后，这项研究将审慎地评估家禽粪便标记基因作为识别水体中家禽粪便污染的工具的价值，以及该标记在评估暴露于含有家禽粪便的水及其相关病原体对人类的风险方面的效用。完成的研究预计将对监测水体中家禽粪便污染和来自受家禽粪便污染的径流的人类病原体的效果产生重大的积极影响。这项研究将导致开发一种工具，能够准确测量和模拟陆用家禽粪便造成的非点源污染，包括更好地估计这种污染对人类健康的风险。从长远来看，这项研究将为水质管理人员提供一种快速和定量的工具，用于识别污染源和确定农业领域适当的家禽粪便使用率，这最终将因家禽粪便管理而降低公众对人类病原体的暴露。

1234366/1234237Weidhaas/HarwoodOver 10,000 US water bodies are impaired under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act due to fecal contamination, as evidenced by fecal indicator bacteria. Agricultural practices, including land spreading of approximately 1.6 billion kg of poultry litter (soiled bedding) per year as a fertilizer, were the leading probable source of water quality impairments in the US in 2008. Poultry litter (bedding contaminated with feces) contains pathogens which can impact environmental waters when constituents of land-applied poultry run off during storms. Degraded water quality leads to regulatory action (impairment), eutrophication, altered ecosystem structure, and fish kills due to the planned application, and in some cases mismanagement, of poultry litter as a fertilizer. Microbial source tracking methods can be used to more accurately determine the source of impairment to water bodies, and to circumvent known issues and inadequacies in fecal indicator bacteria-based pathogen monitoring and fecal pollution source identification. Detection of microorganisms specific to one animal's feces, a.k.a. a marker, in receiving water enhances environmental stewardship by allowing watershed managers to investigate and remediate only the most likely sources of fecal pollution. Development and validation of rapid methods to conclusively determine whether land-applied poultry litter is in runoff is a crucial need for watershed management across the U.S. These methods are widely sought by regulatory agencies and others concerned with water quality beach advisories/closures, TMDL formulation, and remediation of contaminated waterways. This research will critically evaluate 1) a poultry litter marker gene?s correlation with pathogens and fecal indicator bacteria originating from poultry feces and litter and 2) the fate, transport and inactivation of the marker gene and human pathogens under environmentally relevant conditions. Specific studies will be conducted to determine the correlation and survival of poultry litter associated pathogens, fecal indicator bacteria, and the poultry litter marker derived from the 16S rRNA gene of Brevibacterium sp. LA35. These studies will be conducted in soiled poultry litter and feces, in laboratory mesocosms simulating environmental exposure, and in field-scale, simulated rainfall runoff studies. At the completion of this project the research will have critically evaluated the value of the poultry litter marker gene as a tool to identify poultry litter contamination in water bodies, as well as the marker's utility in assessing risk to humans from exposure to water containing poultry litter and its associated pathogens.The completed study is expected to have a significant positive impact on the efficacy of monitoring of water bodies for poultry litter contamination and human pathogens originating from runoff contaminated by poultry litter. This research will lead to the development of a tool that allows accurate measurement and modeling of non-point source pollution from land-applied poultry litter, including better estimates of human health risk from such contamination. In the long term, this research will provide water quality managers with a rapid and quantitative tool for identifying pollution sources and for determining appropriate poultry litter application rates to agricultural fields, which will ultimately lead to lower public exposure to human pathogens as a result of poultry litter management.