The phylum
Bacteroidetes is composed of three large groups of bacteria with the best-known category being
Bacteroidaceae. This family of gram-negative bacteria is found primarily in the intestinal tracts and mucous
membranes of warm-blooded animals and is sometimes considered pathogenic.
Comprising
Bacteroidaceae are the genus
Bacteroides and
Prevotella. The latter genus was originally
classified within the former (i.e.
Bacteroides), but since the 1990's it has been classified in a separate genus
because of new chemical and biochemical findings.
Bacteroides and
Prevotella are gram-negative, anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria that inhabitant of the oral, respiratory, intestinal, and urogenital cavities of humans, animals, and insects. They are sometimes pathogenic.
Fecal
Bacteroidetes are considered for several reasons an interesting alternative to more traditional indicator
organisms such as
E. coli and
Enterococci. Since they are strict anaerobes, they are indicative of recent
fecal contamination when found in water systems. This is a particularly strong reference point when trying to
determine recent outbreaks in
fecal pollution. They are also more abundant in feces of warm-blooded animals
than
E. coli and
Enterococci. Furthermore, these latter two organisms are facultative anaerobes and as such
they can be problematic for monitoring purposes since it has been shown that they are able to proliferate in
soil, sand and sediments.
The
Dog Bacteroidetes ID™ service is designed around the principle that fecal
Bacteroidetes are found in
large quantities in feces of warm-blooded animals. Furthermore, certain categories of
Bacteroidetes have been shown to be predominately detected in dog. Within these
Bacteroidetes, certain strains of the
Bacteroides and
Prevotella genus have been found in dog. As such, these bacterial strains can be used
as indicators of dog
fecal contamination.
One of the advantages of the
Dog Bacteroidetes ID™ service is that the entire water is sampled and filtered for fecal
Bacteroidetes. As such, this method avoids the randomness effect of culturing and selecting bacterial
isolates off a petri dish. This is a particular advantage for highly contaminated water systems with potential
multiple sources of
fecal contamination.
