Survival of Food-borne and Pathogenic Microorganisms in Hot Spring Water

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of hot spring water against the survival of food-borne and pathogenic microorganisms. Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Escherichia coli, which are food-borne microorganisms, Candida albicans and Trichophyton mentagrophytes, which are skin disease pathogens, and Helicobacter pylori, gastritis inducing microorganism, were tested. The content of fluoride in tested hot spring water is 14.1 mg/L, which is higher than the standard of safe for drinking water 1.5 mg/L, but the results on 48 other items were up to the standard. Hot spring water didn't show the bactericidal effects against food-borne microorganisms, C. albicans, and H. pylori tested. However, the viable cell populations of B. cereus and T. mentagrophytes were decreased, which were depends on the temperature of hot spring water. From these results, we confirmed that hot spring water didn't show the bactericidal effects against food-borne microorganisms, skin disease pathogens, and gastritis inducing microorganism, but the growth of some microorganisms were inhibited by high temperature ().