Microbial source tracking of fecal contamination in the Pearl River Delta region

Identification of the host source of microbial contaminants accurately is the basis for targeted treatment in water. To analyze the feature of pollution in the Pearl River Delta Region, qPCR method was applied to choose the suitable specific bacteroides primer, and culture-method was combined which detected the Fecal coliform and Escherichia coli to assess the water quality and the sources of fecal pollution in target area. The results showed that human-specific marker qHS601F/qBac725R, ruminant-specific marker BacB2-590F/Bac708Rm, porcine-specific marker Bac41F/Bac163R and chicken-specific marker qC160F-HU/qBac265R-HU had higher sensitivity and specificity in the Pearl River Delta region. 14 sampling sites were polluted by human, ruminant and poultry fecal. The intensity of pollution by different source was found to be human>ruminant>poultry. And the concentration of qHS601F/qBac725R had a significant correlationship with Fecal coliform, Escherichia coli and EC23S857F/ EC23S857R (P © 2017, Editorial Board of China Environmental Science. All right reserved.