Escherichia coli: Indicator of Water Quality and Human Health Risk

Dear Colleagues,

Indicator organisms have often been used as surrogates for the human health risk associated with contamination in water and wastewater. E. coli, more specifically, has been broadly used, especially in environmental water science. This Special Issue will cover Escherichia coli as an indicator of water quality and human health risk, where risk can include the presence of human pathogens in water, as well as antibiotic-resistance genes carried by E. coli that could be transferred to human pathogens. Topics will include evaluations of indicator-pathogen relationships in water and wastewater, quantitative microbial risk analyses of pathogenic strains of E. coli that may contribute to human health risks, studies that detect E. coli in settings that may impact communities downstream, and documented methods for minimizing introduction of E. coli from terrestrial sources into surface waters. Studies that evaluate water and wastewater from multiple sites or that compare concentrations of indicator and pathogens in a variety of samples are encouraged. In particular, evaluations of human health risk associated with the use of E. coli as an indicator organism will be prioritized.

This Special Issue, titled “Escherichia coli: Indicator of Water Quality and Human Health Risk”, aims to collate new and novel research using and evaluating E. coli as an indicator for human health risk in water and wastewater-contaminated sources.

Dr. Emily Bailey
Prof. Dr. Bruce H. Bleakley
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• microbial risk assessment (MRA)
• microbial water quality
• health risk assessment
• faecal pollution source tracking
• water contamination/pollution
• waterborne pathogens
• Escherichia coli
• faecal indicators
• drinking water
• antibiotic resistance genes (ARG)