Identifying Sources of Fecal Contamination Inexpensively with Targeted Sampling and Bacterial Source Tracking.

The article reports on the inexpensive way of identifying fecal contamination sources. Inexpensive identification of fecal contamination sources can be achieved through targeted sampling and some bacterial source tracking (BST) methods. Communities cannot afford many methods of BST because they are expensive. To minimize the costs of identifying fecal contamination, targeted sampling should be first used before BST. There are three methods of BST that are inexpensive and they are Enterococcus speciation, fluorometry, and detection of the esp gene. The inexpensive methods were applied in a test in the beaches of Jekyll and Seal Islands in Georgia. Bird feces is the most probable source of contamination.