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Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Colorimetric Paper-based Detection of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., and Listeria monocytogenes from Large Volumes of Agricultural Water
Published on: June 9, 2014
Rapid diagnostic method for quantitative testing of <100 microbes in water
Anja Walzer1, Frank Tiemann, Joerg Knaeblein
1Research Laboratories Schering AG, now Bayer Schering Pharma, Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
A robust, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) system to universally detect microbes at a limit of 10 to 50 colony-forming units within 5-6 h was developed. Pre-treatment of RT-PCR master mixes with ethidiumbromide monoacide (EMA) facilitates the development of an RT-PCR assay with appropriate sensitivity, reproducibility, and recovery.The system is useful to replace conventional microbial plating techniques for the analysis of microbial contamination in liquids like water. This was statistically confirmed for eight different bacteria and two different fungi species. Finally a complete procedure including microbial lysis, DNA extraction, EMA treatment, and RT-PCR was developed and evaluated for three different bacteria and two fungi species.
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