Abstract

Microbial water-borne diseases still affect developing countries and are major water quality concerns throughout the world. Routine culture-based methods of identifying bacterial pathogens in water sources are laborious and time-consuming. Recently, the use of molecular techniques such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has provided rapid and highly promising detection methods. In this study, we developed two multiplex PCR assays for simultaneous detection of six water-borne bacteria. Two triplex PCR protocols were developed to detect six target genes. The first protocol targets uidA (Escherichia coli), int (Shigella spp.), and gyrB (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) genes, while invA (Salmonella spp.), ompW (Vibrio cholera), and lacZ (coliforms) were amplified by the second protocol. Specificity testing was carried out for 12 reference strains. Furthermore, the applicability of the multiplex PCR assays for detection of these bacteria was investigated for 52 surface water samples. The results indicated that all primer pairs showed specificities only for their corresponding target organisms. The detection sensitivity of both multiplex PCR assays was 3 x 10(2) 3 x 10(3) colony forming units. The developed assays represent simple and efficient diagnostic procedures for co-detection of water-borne bacteria and have the potential to provide earlier warnings of possible public health threats and more accurate surveillance of these organisms.