International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Robert D. Morris

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Guest Editor

Eco Logic Consulting, Issaquah, Washington, USA
Interests: drinking water epidemiology; chlorination byproducts; emerging waterborne infectious disease; water and climate change

Prof. Dr. Timothy E. Ford

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Guest Editor

School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 149A Goessmann, Amherst, MA, USA
Interests: source and drinking water microbiology; pathogen survival; biofilms; microbial cycling and transformation of pollutants; epidemiology of waterborne diseases; CBPR; microbial ecotoxicology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change, increasing populations, water reuse, and rapid disease transmission related to migration patterns and ease of air travel in general, all increase the probability for the emergence of new threats to the microbial safety of our drinking water. The goal of this Special Issue is to characterize the following:

The nature and extent of emerging pathogens in drinking water
New approaches to monitoring and surveillance for new and resurgent waterborne pathogens
New approaches to determining virulence/antimicrobial resistance of waterborne pathogens
The risks to human health posed by those pathogens
The mechanisms by which new pathogens enter and spread through our water supplies
The impact of climate change on emerging waterborne pathogens
Innovative strategies for the treatment and distribution of drinking water to prevent or mitigate these risks
Public policy approaches to mitigate these risks

We welcome research in any of the above areas.

Dr. Robert D. Morris
Prof. Timothy E. Ford
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

drinking water
emerging pathogens
climate change
waterborne disease
water treatment
water supply

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

13 pages, 1774 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Unexpected Prevalence of eae-Positive Escherichia coli in the Animas River, Durango, Colorado

by Steve Hamner, Steven D. Fenster, Benjamin T. Nance, Katherine A. McLain, Kami S. Parrish-Larson, Michael W. Morrow and Timothy E. Ford

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(1), 195; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph17010195 - 27 Dec 2019

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2635

Abstract

Since 2014, biology students at Fort Lewis College have studied the water quality of the Animas River in Durango, Colorado. Environmental microbiology and molecular biology techniques have been employed to study Escherichia coli isolates from the river and to define characteristics of the bacteria related to public health. E. coli was found in the river, as well as in culverts and tributary creeks that drain into the river within the Durango city limits. Concentrations of E. coli in the river occasionally exceeded the US EPA guideline of 126 CFU per 100 mL for recreational water use. Many of the E. coli isolates were able to be grown at 45 °C, an indication of mammalian origin. Unexpectedly, 8% of the isolates contained the intimin (eae) gene, a virulence gene characteristic of two pathotypes of E. coli, the enterohemorrhagic and enteropathogenic E. coli. Several isolates tested were resistant to multiple antibiotics commonly used in animal and human medicine. Further study is warranted to determine the source of these bacteria entering the Animas River, and to further characterize the possible disease potential of multi-antibiotic resistant and virulence gene-containing isolates found in a semi-rural/urban setting. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Waterborne Disease: A Focus on Emerging Concerns)

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