Modelling the Decay of Escherichia Coli in Different Soils

Integrated famming of crop and animal enables (eSources from animal waste to be utilised. However, bacterial pollution is a concern. In this study, a bacterial model, ECOLI, was developed to simulate Escherichia coli density daily on land and its concentration in surface runoft'. Loss of E. col...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ling, Teck Yee, Kasing, Apun, R.H., Joshua
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Sains Malaysia 2003
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/115/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/115/1/Modelling%20the%20decay%20of%20Escherichia%20Coli%20%28abstract%29.pdf
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Summary:Integrated famming of crop and animal enables (eSources from animal waste to be utilised. However, bacterial pollution is a concern. In this study, a bacterial model, ECOLI, was developed to simulate Escherichia coli density daily on land and its concentration in surface runoft'. Loss of E. coli was assumed to occur through decay,runoff, sediment and percolation. E. coli decay was assumed to follow the first order decay affected by soil pH, soil. temperature and soil moisture. In testing the model, the ECOLI model was interfaced with the GLEAMS-SWT hydrologic and erosion model. Calibration and evaluation was performed with field-scale data from Franklinton. louisiana. Fresh cow manureĀ· was applied on grassed plots and runoff was collected and analysed Predicted E.coli concerntrations versus observed E. coli concentrations in surface runoff gave a regression line with coefficient of determination of 0.993, intercept of 0.011 and a slope of 0.995 indicating good agreement of model predicted conCentrations with observed concentrations. The ECOLI model can be used to study die effects of various animal waste application practices such as waste loadhtg mte, timing ofapplication and frequency of application. More research needs to be conducted to incorporate databases so as to expand the capabilities of this model.