Located in central Europe, the Danube basin is "the most important non-oceanic body
of water" which flows into the Black Sea through a large delta (Mladenović-Ranisavljević et a
l., 2012). The watershed of the Danube covers 817,000 km2 and drains all or significant parts of Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and parts of the Federal Republics of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Helmer et al., 1997).
Map from: http://cruises.about.com/od/vikingneptune/ig/Viking-Neptune/Eastern-European-Odyssey-Map.htm
The greatest threat for the Danube River is population growth which is basically the cause for the current water quality for the river today. Surface and ground water quality assessments have been a major focus since there is little that can be done to protect the Danube River as it journeys down on a 1,785 mile hike to the Black Sea. A major concern for human and animal health is the pathogenic bacteria currently present in the river due to contaminants such as agricultural, industrial, urban activity and untreated sewage. The Danube River's tributaries also contribute and alter major microbiological pollution as they are smaller, more concentrated polluted water systems.
Chart from Pall et al. 2013. Primary source of water contamination.
Total coliforms, fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci (all excreted by humans) have been found in excessive counts, classifying them as strong pollutants. Salmonella enterica, which is mainly correlated with contaminated food and feeds, has been found in alerting numbers causing this to be of great concern.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), showing a very high specificity and sensitivity (Feder et al., 2001), has become a usual method for detection of pathogens from various sources, because these methods can enhance small amounts of DNA (Touron et al., 2005; Moganedi et al., 2007).
Even though the Danube River may not affect us directly, we must not forget that we live in one of the many riparian cities to the Rio Grande. The effects that pollution and contamination have caused to the Danube River are potential threats to our river system if population and pollution continues to expand.
Article Used:
Páll, E., Niculae, M., Kiss, T., Şandru, C. D., Spînu, M. (2013). Human impact on the microbiological water quality of the rivers. Journal of Medical Microbiology 10, 1099/jmm.0.055749-0
Literature Cited:
Literature Cited:
Feder, I., Nietfeld, J. C., Galland, J., Yeary, T., Sargent, J. M.,Oberst, R.,
Tamplin, M.L., Luchansky, J.B. (2001). Comparison of cultivation and PCR286 hybridization for detection of Salmonella in porcine fecal and water samples. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 39, 2477–2484.
Helmer, R. & Hespanhol, I. (1997). Water Pollution Control - A Guide to the Use of Water Quality Management Principles, Published on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme, the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council and the World Health Organization by E. & F. Spon ,WHO/UNEP
Mladenović-Ranisavljević, I., Takić, L., Vuković, M., Nikolić, Đ., Nenad, Ž.,
Milosavljević, P. (2012). Multi-criteria ranking of the danube water quality, on its
course through serbia, Serbian Journal of Management 7, 299 – 307.
Touron, A., Berthe, T., Pawlak, B., & Petit, F. (2005). Detection of Salmonella in environmental water and sediment by a nested-multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay. Research in Microbiology 156, 541–553.
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