Quantitative PCR for detection and enumeration of genetic markers of bovine fecal pollution

Quantitative PCR assays are developed for the detection of bovine feces-specific genetic markers and a method is designed for the enumeration of these markers by using a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. Acceptable assay performance combined with the prevalence of DNA targets across different cattle populations have shown that these quantitative assays are useful in monitoring bovine fecal pollution in ambient waters.