Colimetry of marine waters off Fortaleza (Ceará State, Brazil) and detection of strains of Escherichia coli, a well-known enteroinvader (EIEC) and enteropathogenic (EPEC)

Abstract

The bacteriological analysis of the water in a few beaches of Fortaleza was performed from May 3 to October 22, 1995 in order to assess its degree of contamination by Escherichia coli, based on 10 samples per beach. The following results emerged from this study: (a) Mucuripe beach was the most contaminated with 50% of the water samples showing over 2,400/100 ml of MPN fecal coliforms; (b) on a secondary position come Formosa and Meireles beaches, with 10% of samples showing that maximum value; (c) Escherichia coli strains were identified in 70% of the samples collected on Formosa, Meireles and Mucuripe beaches, and in 60% of the samples collected on Diários beach; (d) in addition to Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter aerogenes and Citrobacter were isolated from water samples taken on the four above-mentioned beaches;(e) among 78 E.coli strains isolated from the water, four were characterized as classic enteropathogenic; (j) the Escherichia coli EPEC isolated from Meireles, Formosa and Diários beaches belonged to 026, 0127, 055 and 0125 serogroups; (g)the four Escherichia coli-EPEC strains proved resistant to Cephalosporin and Penicillin antibiotics families.