Salmonella: The forgotten pathogen: Health hazards of compliance with European Bathing Water Legislation Catarina R. Mansilha a,b, * , Carla A. Coelho a , Alcina Reinas a , Ana Moutinho a , Sónia Ferreira a , C. Pizarro a , António Tavares a a National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Rua Alexandre Herculano 321, 4000-055 Porto, Portugal b Requimte, University of Porto, Portugal article info Keywords: Salmonella Bathing water EU Directive Faecal indicator microorganisms Chromogenic methods VIDAS abstract The increasing demands on recreational waters have made microbial contamination a matter of public and scientific concern. This study aimed to search for Salmonella spp. in waters classified according EU Directive 2006/7/EC, in order to assess associations between its prevalence and the concentration of the non-pathogenic new faecal indicators: Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci. Although a statisti- cally significant association was observed Salmonella was detected on beaches classified as ‘‘Good” (9.3%) and ‘‘Excellent” (14.4%) which compromises the idea that faecal indicators can be predictors of patho- gens. Attending the high prevalence of Salmonella found (23.1%) it seemed important to improve the efficiency of the conventional analytical method (ISO 6340:1995), comparing its draft with SML-VIDAS Salmonella and two new chromogenic media: AES Salmonella Agar Plate (ASAP) and Simple Method Sal- monella (SMS). ASAP showed the higher efficiency and can be recommended for a faster detection and presumptive identification of salmonellae in bathing waters. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Bathing water quality is an important indicator of environmen- tal quality and tourism development and is, essentially, a factor of public health. Thus, the requirements for the use of the designated bathing areas should be based not only on access conditions, infra- structures and safety but, increasingly, on the water and Portugal has, only in the continental territory, about 830 km of coastline with beautiful sand bordering by Atlantic. Surface waters and reservoirs are particularly liable to pollution due to industrial, urban and agricultural effluents discharges that usually contain a mixture of non-pathogenic and pathogenic bacte- ria that have been shown to be the causative agents of several hu- man minor morbidity diseases, such as gastrointestinal or upper respiratory tract ailments, or more severe illnesses such as hepati- tis and meningitis. Potential sites of infection include the oral rout, ears, eyes, nasal cavity and upper respiratory tract (Pond, 2005; IEH, 2000; World Health Organization, 2001). While epidemiological studies constitute the major basis of water quality standards in the United States of America (USEPA, 2003; Efstratiou, 2001) such studies have a minor importance for standard development in Europe (Cabelli et al., 1982; Polo et al., 1998) where water quality is assessed in terms of mandatory val- ues. Compliance with the 1976 European Bathing Water Directive (EEC, 1976) required that 80% of the samples taken during a bath- ing season meet the quality standards for the faecal indicators as outlined in Table 1 and, moreover, Salmonella and enterovirus must be absent in 1 l and 10 l, respectively. According to the revised new European Bathing Water Directive 2006/7/EC (EU, 2006) the state of the official outdoor bathing waters quality is carried out on the basis of the data compiled over four bathing seasons, distin- guishing separate standards for coastal and fresh waters, and the pollution monitoring required is confined only to non-pathogenic indicator bacteria: Escherichia coli (E. coli) and intestinal entero- cocci, as predictors of microbiological contamination. However, a limited and inconclusive number of attempts to quantify the relationship of indicators with bacterial pathogens have been reported (Efstratiou and Tsirtsis, 2009) and the use of classical bacteria as indicators of water quality has been ques- tioned (Morin ˇ igo et al., 1993; Figueras et al., 1997; Efstratiou et al., 1998; Dionisio et al., 2000). Salmonella spp. is an important widely distributed pathogenic microorganism and one of the most commonly recorded cause of gastroenteritis in humans in western industrial countries (Bagge- sen et al., 2000; Bell and Kyriakides, 2002). Some serotypes can 0025-326X/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.01.013 * Corresponding author. Address: National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Rua Alexandre Herculano 321, 4000-055 Porto, Portugal. Tel.: +351 223401100; fax: +351 223401119. E-mail address: catarinamansilha@gmail.com (C.R. Mansilha). Marine Pollution Bulletin 60 (2010) 819–826 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul