ABSTRACT
A variety of bacteria, parasites, and viruses, known as pathogens can potentially cause health problems in humans from ingestions. Bacteria, viruses, protozoa, helminthes, and other organisms can be analyzed by microbiological methods and also by molecular biology techniques. The microbial methods, however, are less expensive and provide quantitative (semiquantitative) results. In these methods, the microbes are cultured under controlled conditions, and then microscopic measurements are used to detect and quantify them. Microbial methods provide quantitative results and are less expensive in comparison to molecular biology techniques. There are primarily two different microbial tests to determine total coliforms (TCs) in the water. One is the membrane filter (MF) method and the other is multiple tube fermentation method, also known as the most probable number or most probable number (MPN) test. The MF method is the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Method 1604 to carry out the analysis of TCs and Escherichia coli (E. coli) in water simultaneously.
