Pérez-Sánchez, Grisselle E.

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    Caracterización de hongos y bacterias coliformes presentes en el biosólido municipal compostado
    (2012) Pérez-Sánchez, Grisselle E.; Librán-Salas, María del C.; College of Agricultural Sciences; Rivera Vargas, Lydia I.; Alameda Lozada, Myrna Z.; Department of Crops and Agro-Environmental Sciences; González Soto, Jorge A.
    Municipal Sewage Sludge Compost (MSSC) is used as an alternate growing media for peat. Howeve;rthe use of MSCC can be affected by the pre sense of pathogenic microorganisms. Concerns about the effects of pathogens motivates additional study of MSSC. The principal objective was to characterize fungi and detect coliform bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella spp. in the MSSC and peat. The fungi identified in the MSSC were from the following genera: Aspergillus, Conidiobolus, Curvularia, Mucor, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Scopulariopsis and Trichoderma. Aspergillus fumigatus was identified in the peat. This species has been reported to be a human pathogen. For the detection of coliforms the methods used were: membrane filtration and Colilert test. The total coliforms were detected in all treatments of MSSC, meanwhile in the peat were not detected. Salmonella spp. was not detected in either substrate. The coliforms identified in the MSSC were Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, Aeromonas encheleia, Escherichia fergusonii, Pasteurella bettyae, Pantoea stewartii ss stewartii, Rahnella aquatilis and Vibrio tubiashii. All of these have been reported as opportunistic pathogens. Lettuce plants were grown in both substrates and coliforms were detected in plant tissue. Enterobacter sakazakii was detected in lettuce grown in MSSC, Pantoea dispersa in lettuce grown in peat, and Pantoea dispersa and Pseudomonas mendocina in a mix of MSSC and peat. The presence of these coliform bacteria in the substratum represents a risk to the health of human, who handle this growing media. Furthermore, the capacity of transport of the coliforms into the plant tissue indicates that growing media is one of restricted use. Based on results of this research, I cannot recommend the use of MSSC for food crops.