Application of Faecalibacterium as Index Bacteria of Feces in Water

Faecalibacterium is a kind of dominant bacterium in human and animal intestines. The genes of Faecalibacterium in different hosts have apparent differences. Therefore Faecalibacterium can be used to determine the source of feces, by specificity of Faecalibacterium 16S rDNA in different hosts and quantitative PCR determination method. Compared to traditional aquatic fecal test method, Faecalibacterium has the advantages of higher sensitivity, more accuracy, and shorter time. Choosing Faecalibacterium as the fecal pollution index bacterium can even track different pollution sources, which is superior to the traditional index bacteria, such as Fecal coliform, E. coli, and Enterococcus. This method also compensates for the disadvantages of other traditional microbes. Thus, Faecalibacterium can be used as a detection index for drinking water, domestic sewerage, lake, and river. Faecalibacterium method has received increasing attention for water quality monitoring. The U.S. government has put it as an auxiliary detecting project in drinking water. This paper summarizes the advantages of using Faecalibacterium in tracing the source of water fecal pollution, reviews the method and the application of using Faecalibacterium in aquatic environment, predicts its application in the future, and proposes an accurate way to track feces sources by combining the traditional microbes and Faecalibacterium methods. Tab 5, Ref 46