PHYSIOCHEMICAL CONDITIONS AND CONTAMINATION WITH VIBRIOS OF SURFACE WATER AT MATLAB, BANGLADESH

Cholera is water-borne infectious disease caused by Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139. Currently a proportion of people living in rural area like Matlab, Bangladesh are dependent on surface water for various purposes to surface water. People of the area are affected by cholera particularly in rainy seasons. We measured in situ the physicochemical parameters of water using portable meters and counted the Vibrio sp. from water, phytoplankton and zooplankton samples of river and pond water of Matlab, Bangladesh. The culturable Vibrios were counted thiosulfate-citrate-bile salts-sucrose agar (TCBS) and taurocholate tellurite gelatin agar (TTGA) plates and viable but nonculturable (VBNC) by direct fluorescent microscopy. To confirm, we further did PCR of ompW gene and serology for V. cholerae O1/O139. Strong correlation of Vibrios cultural counts with pH, total coliform and faecal coliform heterotropic plate counts and viable but nonculturable (VBNC) counts with only total dissolved solids (TDS) noticed from the results. We identified 25 V. cholerae non-O1 and five V. cholerae O1 serotype which is main cause of cholera from water, phytoplankton and zooplankton samples of pond and rivers. Therefore, the present study indicated that the JMBFS / Paul et al. 2012 : 2 (2) 713-729 714 surface water sources are the main causes of cholera and reestablished the Matlab as epidemic area of Bangladesh.