Detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in water from coliform enrichment cultures.

Environmental water samples were seeded with Escherichia coli O157:H7 and the bacterium was recovered using a traditional coliform enrichment procedure followed by selective plating on sorbitol MacConkey agar and biochemical and serological characterization. Assays for beta-glucuronidase and glutamate decarboxylase were found to be useful procedures for screening suspected isolates. The organism was not recovered in a survey of various water samples.