Bacteria Source Tracking for Stream Water: The Case of Huntsville Spring Branch and Indian Creek Watersheds of northern Alabama.

North Alabama is rapidly becoming one of the most technologically advanced areas in the United States. Currently, housing the second largest research park in the nation, Madison County in particular is facing alarming population growth and environmental alterations. Eventually this growth will introduce strain on the environmental resources of Madison county, as well as surrounding areas. For these reasons, water quality research is imperative and much needed in this portion of the state. The objective of this study is to identify the type of bacteria present in stream water for Huntsville Spring Branch (HSB) and Indian Creek (IC) Watersheds of northern Alabama. Monthly water samples were collected from four locations in HSB and IC watersheds. Water samples were collected directly from the stream into sterile polypropylene bottles. All water samples were placed on ice and transported to the laboratory for bacterial isolation within 6 hours of collection. For Staphylococcus isolation, one ml of water from each collected sample was spread on the selective medium plate (Baird Parker Medium Base), respectively, and incubated at 37ºC for 18-20 hours. Then, three sub-cultures were conducted on the same medium, and the well-isolated colonies were picked and cultured in Tris-buffered saline (TBS) medium. The suspended bacteria were stored with 20% glycerol at -70 to -80 ºC. Between 5 and 10 isolates per water samples were stored. For Listeria isolation, the bacteria were cultured and sub-cultured on Difco Oxford Medium Base plated, and then collected using the same procedure as that for Staphylococcus isolation. Currently, we have collected 85 isolates of Staphylococcus and 35 isolates of Listeria.