The US Department of Agriculture Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory compared the Concentrating Pipette™ (CP) to traditional filter-based methods for testing the microbial quality of various irrigation water sources. The study showed that the Concentrating Pipette effectively concentrates indicator organisms and pathogens like total coliforms, fecal coliforms, E. coli, enterococci, B. fragilis, C. perfringens, Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, and E. coli O157 from irrigation water samples using culture, enumeration, and PCR techniques.
The study concluded that the Concentrating Pipette™ is substantially faster, and results were comparable to membrane filtration for analyzing microbiological quality of various irrigation water sources, with superiority in enabling the detection of virulence genes linked to E. coli O157.
“The concentrator method is simple, highly effective, and rapid in helping to detect bacterial populations in irrigation water and can be used as an alternative to traditional tedious membrane filtration method."
Read the study - Comparison of methods to determine the microbial quality of alternative irrigation waters - Hsin-Bai Yin, Jitendra Patel
Agricultural Water Management Vol. 201 March 2018
