Dobrowsky P H, De Kwaadsteniet M, Cloete T E, Khan W
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 2014 Apr;80(7):2307-16. doi: 10.1128/AEM.04130-13. Epub 2014 Jan 31.
The harvesting of rainwater is gaining acceptance among many governmental authorities in countries such as Australia, Germany, and South Africa, among others. However, conflicting reports on the microbial quality of harvested rainwater have been published. To monitor the presence of potential pathogenic bacteria during high-rainfall periods, rainwater from 29 rainwater tanks was sampled on four occasions (during June and August 2012) in a sustainable housing project in Kleinmond, South Africa. This resulted in the collection of 116 harvested rainwater samples in total throughout the sampling period. The identities of the dominant, indigenous, presumptive pathogenic isolates obtained from the rainwater samples throughout the sampling period were confirmed through universal 16S rRNA PCR, and the results revealed that Pseudomonas (19% of samples) was the dominant genus isolated, followed by Aeromonas (16%), Klebsiella (11%), and Enterobacter (9%). PCR assays employing genus-specific primers also confirmed the presence of Aeromonas spp. (16%), Klebsiella spp. (47%), Legionella spp. (73%), Pseudomonas spp. (13%), Salmonella spp. (6%), Shigella spp. (27%), and Yersinia spp. (28%) in the harvested rainwater samples. In addition, on one sampling occasion, Giardia spp. were detected in 25% of the eight tank water samples analyzed. This study highlights the diverse array of pathogenic bacteria that persist in harvested rainwater during high-rainfall periods. The consumption of untreated harvested rainwater could thus pose a potential significant health threat to consumers, especially children and immunocompromised individuals, and it is recommended that harvested rainwater be treated for safe usage as an alternative water source.
在澳大利亚、德国和南非等国，许多政府当局越来越认可雨水收集。然而，关于收集的雨水微生物质量的报道却相互矛盾。为监测高降雨期潜在致病细菌的存在情况，2012年6月和8月期间，在南非克莱蒙德的一个可持续住房项目中，对29个雨水收集箱的雨水进行了4次采样。整个采样期共收集了116个雨水样本。通过通用16S rRNA PCR确认了整个采样期从雨水样本中获得的主要、本地、推定致病分离株的身份，结果显示，分离出的主要菌属是假单胞菌属（占样本的19%），其次是气单胞菌属（16%）、克雷伯菌属（11%）和肠杆菌属（9%）。使用属特异性引物的PCR检测也证实了收集的雨水样本中存在气单胞菌属（16%）、克雷伯菌属（47%）、军团菌属（73%）、假单胞菌属（13%）、沙门氏菌属（6%）、志贺氏菌属（27%）和耶尔森菌属（28%）。此外，在一次采样中，在所分析的8个水箱水样中，有25%检测到贾第虫属。这项研究突出了高降雨期收集的雨水中持续存在的多种致病细菌。因此，饮用未经处理的收集雨水可能会对消费者，尤其是儿童和免疫功能低下者构成重大健康威胁，建议对收集的雨水进行处理，以安全用作替代水源。
