Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

The demand for water quality testing is rising globally, driven by efforts to meet SDG 6’s drinking water targets and, more generally, a growing awareness of widespread contamination of drinking water supplies of all types. However, access to the equipment, materials and logistical support needed for routine monitoring remains concentrated in urban centers, with slow diffusion of even basic water testing tools to non-urban areas. Our research in this area aims to test and adapt materials, equipment and laboratory protocols, with an emphasis on overcoming the major technical, logistic and financial barriers that impede local uptake.

Extbase Variable Dump

array(2 items)
   publications => '18656' (5 chars)
   libraryUrl => '' (0 chars)

Extbase Variable Dump

array(1 item)
   0 => Snowflake\Publications\Domain\Model\Publicationprototypepersistent entity (uid=18656, pid=124)
      originalId => protected18656 (integer)
      authors => protected'Genter,&nbsp;F.; Marks,&nbsp;S.&nbsp;J.; Clair-Caliot,&nbsp;G.; Mugume,&nbsp
         ;D.&nbsp;S.; Johnston,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;B.; Bain,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;S.; Julia
         n,&nbsp;T.&nbsp;R.' (170 chars)
      title => protected'Evaluation of the novel substrate RUG<sup>™</sup> for the detection of<em>
          Escherichia coli</em> in water from temperate (Zurich, Switzerland) and tro
         pical (Bushenyi, Uganda) field sites' (188 chars)
      journal => protected'Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology' (52 chars)
      year => protected2019 (integer)
      volume => protected5 (integer)
      issue => protected'6' (1 chars)
      startpage => protected'1082' (4 chars)
      otherpage => protected'1091' (4 chars)
      categories => protected'' (0 chars)
      description => protected'Direct testing of water quality to promote drinking water safety contributes
          to the sustainable development goals, which call for universal access to sa
         fely-managed drinking water services by 2030. Enzyme–substrate tests offer
          a potentially simple and reliable approach for the detection and quantifica
         tion of fecal indicator bacteria, including <em>Escherichia coli</em> (<em>E
         . coli</em>). The novel aquatest (AT) based on resorufin-β-D-glucuronide me
         thyl ester (RUG™) (AT-RUG) is an enzyme–substrate test that overcomes se
         veral drawbacks of other established tests. In this study, AT-RUG was used t
         o detect and quantify <em>E. coli</em> in water from temperate (Zurich, Swit
         zerland) and tropical (Bushenyi, Uganda) regions. Quantitative results of AT
         -RUG were compared with IDEXX Colilert-18® (C-18), m-TEC and m-ColiBlue24®
         . In temperate waters, AT-RUG was found to be as sensitive as m-TEC (97.0%) 
         and C-18 (98.5%) and showed strong agreement with the reference methods. The
          false-positive rate for <em>E. coli</em> detection in temperate waters usin
         g AT-RUG was 6%. AT-RUG performed well at incubation temperatures of 37 °C 
         and 45 °C, but not at 24 °C. In tropical waters, AT-RUG sensitivity was 94
         .1% compared to m-ColiBlue24®. AT-RUG detected significantly more <em>E. co
         li</em> than m-ColiBlue24®, suggesting it is a more conservative estimate. 
         At both field sites, AT-RUG was able to effectively indicate categorical con
         centrations of <em>E. coli</em> in water samples indicating the level of ris
         ks of fecal contamination of water supplies. This study indicates that AT-RU
         G is a reliable and accurate medium for the detection and quantification of 
         <em>E. coli</em> in temperate and tropical waters.' (1722 chars)
      serialnumber => protected'2053-1400' (9 chars)
      doi => protected'10.1039/C9EW00138G' (18 chars)
      uid => protected18656 (integer)
      _localizedUid => protected18656 (integer)modified
      _languageUid => protectedNULL
      _versionedUid => protected18656 (integer)modified
      pid => protected124 (integer)

Genter, F.; Marks, S. J.; Clair-Caliot, G.; Mugume, D. S.; Johnston, R. B.; Bain, R. E. S.; Julian, T. R. (2019) Evaluation of the novel substrate RUG^™ for the detection of Escherichia coli in water from temperate (Zurich, Switzerland) and tropical (Bushenyi, Uganda) field sites, Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology, 5(6), 1082-1091, doi:10.1039/C9EW00138G, Institutional Repository