Enumerating bacterial cells on bioadhesive coated slides

► Bioadhesive slides increase throughput for counting bacteria from environmental samples. ► Results positively correlated to standard methods that use polycarbonate filters. ► Counts from bioadhesive slides are 40-80% higher than from filters. ► Bioadhesive slides exhibit lower background than polycarbonate filters. ► Successfully tested using a variety of fluorescent staining methods.