| Fecal coliform contamination is a problem which is prevalent throughout Alaskan surficial waters. Sources of pollution are difficult to identify and thus make remediation of fecal contamination difficult. This work used a microbial source tracking technique known as Antibiotic Resistance Analysis (ARA) to identify the sources of fecal pollution in Chester Creek, Anchorage, Alaska. Enterococcus bacteria were isolated, enumerated and then cultured on trypticase soy agar (TSA) containing different concentrations of eleven common antibiotics. Resistance patterns were recorded and unknown isolates were compared to a library of known source isolates using discriminant analysis to determine the most likely sources of the fecal pollution. The results indicated that in general, baseline levels of fecal coliforms were due to a mixture of non-human sources, and were primarily from dogs. ARA has proven to be an effective tool for source tracking in Alaska and should be further investigated in other cold regions. |
