University of Minnesota Investigates Sources

Where does E. coli come from?

Check out some research done by University of Minnesota researchers, Mike Sadowsky and Randall Hicks. Through an advanced technique called rep-PCR DNA fingerprinting, they have discovered some interesting sources for E. coli in six streams along the North Shore of Lake Superior and some harbor samples. They found that only two out of 100 E. coli colonies grown from the harbor samples came from humans.

Other sources were gulls, terns, beaver, and deer. Waterfowl and wildlife, not humans, contributed from 56-97% of E. coli in the North Shore river samples. For more information on these interesting observations, you can go to the Minnesota Lake Superior beach program website www.pca.state.mn.us/water/beaches/.

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