Analytical limits of four beta-glucuronidase and beta-galactosidase-based commercial culture methods used to detect Escherichia coli and total coliforms

Colilert (Colilert), Readycult Coliforms 100 (Readycult), Chromocult Coliform agar ES (Chromocult), and MI agar (MI) are beta-galactosidase and beta-glucuronidase-based commercial culture methods used to assess water quality. Their analytical performance, in terms of their respective ability to detect different strains of Escherichia coli and total coliforms, had never been systematically compared with pure cultures. Here, their ability to detect beta-glucuronidase production from E. coli isolates was evaluated by using 74 E. coli strains of different geographic origins and serotypes encountered in fecal and environmental settings. Their ability to detect beta-galactosidase production was studied by testing the 74 E. coli strains as well as 33 reference and environmental non-E. coli total coliform strains. Chromocult, MI, Readycult, and Colilert detected beta-glucuronidase production from respectively 79.9, 79.9, 81.1, and 51.4% of the 74 E. coli strains tested. These 4 methods detected beta-galactosidase production from respectively 85.1, 73.8, 84.1, and 84.1% of the total coliform strains tested. The results of the present study suggest that Colilert is the weakest method tested to detect beta-glucuronidase production and MI the weakest to detect beta-galactosidase production. Furthermore, the high level of false-negative results for E. coli recognition obtained by all four methods suggests that they may not be appropriate for identification of presumptive E. coli strains.