EPA ORD Water Research Webinar

As part of their bimonthly webinar series, EPA ORD has selected Use of Microbial Source Tracking Tools in Waterborne Disease Outbreak Response as the subject for the next web event.

DATE:              Wednesday, June 27

TIME:               2:00-3:00PM (eastern)

REGISTER:      Click here

Fecal pollution is recreational and drinking source waters can result in outbreaks leading to the transmission of disease.  Information on the source of fecal pollution is important because the level of human health risk can change from one pollution source to another.  General fecal indicators, such as E. coli and enterococci, are typically used to assess fecal pollution; however, these methodologies do not discriminate between pollution sources.  Recent advancements in the field of molecular biology have led to the development of microbial source tracking (MST) tools that can characterize fecal pollution from different animal groups.

CDC is using MST tools developed by EPA scientists for environmental investigations of waterborne outbreaks.  For this webinar, Dr. Orin Shanks (EPA) will provide an overview on EPA’s MST method development activities, and Dr. Mia Mattioli (CDC) will highlight a CDC response to a recent waterborne outbreak where an EPA developed human-associated MST procedure was employed to help confirm a source of norovirus.  This case scenario demonstrates how EPA and CDC interagency collaborations provide invaluable assistance to state environmental investigations of waterborne outbreaks.