Sensitive counting of viable Enterobacteriaceae in seawaters and relationship with fecal indicators

A fluorescent in situ hybridization based assay was used to enumerate viable Enterobacteriaceae members in seawaters by solid phase cytometry. The method was specific, highly sensitive (1 cell/100 ml) and allowed the quantification of VNC Enterobacteriaceae cells during an osmotic stress. Investigations on contaminated coastal seawater revealed a strong correlation between Enterobacteriaceae counts and standard fecal indicators.