| Abstract: | From river water there were isolated 21 species (mainly coliform bacteria) in 914 strains. Of the pure cultures of coliform bacteria (E. coli, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Citrobacter) 74.1 % of E. coli and 23.2 % of the Klebsiella strains showed lactose decomposition with gas formation at 44 °C. More than 90 % of the isolated Klebsiella did not form indole. Therefore, the temperature test and the indole formation (at 44 °C) (TI-test) made a very specific detection of E. coli in water possible. 94.7 % of the cultures grown initially on endoagar after a positive TI-test proved to be E. coli. The detection of E. coli showed a very good agreement with the standard method and the TI-test, the detection with the standard method being considerably dependent on the number of checked coliform colonies. |
