Number of Fecal Coliforms and Occurence of Drug Resistant E.coli in Rivers of Sendai City

Abstract

The number of fecal coliforms in several spots of the Umeda and Nanakita rivers in Sendai City wwere estimated by inoculating the sample onto MacConkey agar medium, incubating them at 44.5°C for 24hr and counting the number of the red colonies formed. The numbers of fecal coliform varied depending on the sampling spot and date in both rivers. Greater numbers of fecal coliforms were found in the middle sections of both rivers compared to the upper and lower paarts of both rivers. Quite a high percentage of drug resistant strains of E.coli (15-35% of the isolated strains of E.coli) were detected in both rivers and some of the drug resistant E.coli were multiple drug resistant.