Real-time monitoring technologies for indicator bacteria and pathogens in shellfish and shellfish harvesting waters

The counting of bacteria in water has been a critical element in protecting public health in the last century. In the early part of the century scientists were able to grow many species of bacteria and differentiate them from each other using biochemical tests. They also had observed that certain bacteria were always found in the faeces of humans and other warm-blooded animals and that significant disease was also associated with faecal wastes. This association was recognized early on by the scientists who were the fore-runners of our present-day public health scientists. A bacterium originally called Bacillus coli