organism for examination of drinkingwater, since the prevalence in
faecal material was high and the methods for detection were rapid
(Jay et al., 2005; Smith, 1895). However, the survival of E. coli in the
environment are shorter than for enterococci. The enterococci
include two important species found in human and animal intestines,
E. faecalis and E. faecium. The former is reported as mainly
associated with the human intestine, whereas the latter is found in
both humans and animals (Forsythe, 2010). In runoff exposed costal
environments, enterococci concentrations are reported to show
high temporal and spatial variability when sampling water from
the same station repeatedly. Boehm (2007) reported a mean change
in the concentration of enterococci of 60%, and a maximum change
of 700%, within minutes, during consecutive samplings at the same
station. However, filtering organisms will level out these fluctuations
in the water concentration.