Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88535
Title: Human and animal fecal contamination of community water sources, stored drinking water and hands in rural India measured with validated microbial source tracking assays
Authors: Schriewer, Alexander
Odagiri, Mitsunori
Wuertz, Stefan
Misra, Pravas R.
Panigrahi, Pinaki
Clasen, Thomas
Jenkins, Marion W.
Keywords: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences
Human Feces
Water Contamination
Issue Date: 2015
Source: Schriewer, A., Odagiri, M., Wuertz, S., Misra, P. R., Panigrahi, P., Clasen, T., & Jenkins, M. W. (2015). Human and animal fecal contamination of community water sources, stored drinking water and hands in rural India measured with validated microbial source tracking assays. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 93(3), 509-516. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.14-0824
Series/Report no.: The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Abstract: We examined pathways of exposure to fecal contamination of human and animal origin in 24 villages in Odisha, India. In a cross-sectional study during the monsoon season, fecal exposure via community water sources (N = 123) and in the home (N = 137) was assessed using human- and nonhuman-associated Bacteroidales microbial source tracking (MST) markers and fecal coliforms (FCs). Detection rates and marker concentrations were examined to pinpoint pathways of human fecal exposure in the public and domestic domains of disease transmission in study communities. Human fecal markers were detected much more frequently in the domestic domain (45% of households) than in public domain sources (8% of ponds; 4% of groundwater drinking sources). Animal fecal markers were widely detected in both domains (74% of ponds, 96% of households, 10% of groundwater drinking sources), indicating ubiquitous risks of exposure to animal feces and zoonotic pathogens. This study confirms an often suggested contamination link from hands to stored water in the home in developing countries separately for mothers' and children's hands and both human and animal fecal contamination. In contrast to MST markers, FCs provided a poor metric to assess risks of exposure to fecal contamination of human origin in this rural setting.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88535
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45905
ISSN: 0002-9637
DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.14-0824
Schools: School of Biological Sciences 
Organisations: Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering
Rights: © 2015 The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Fulltext Permission: open
Fulltext Availability: With Fulltext
Appears in Collections:SCELSE Journal Articles

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