Indicator bacteria

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Each gram of human feces contains approximately 10 billion (10⁹) bacteria, among them pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella. In addition, feces contains pathogenic viruses, protozoa and parasites. If ingested, these organisms can cause sickness and disease. The variety and often low concentrations of pathogens makes them difficult to test for individually and health authorities use the presence of other more abundant and more easily detected fecal bacteria as indicators of the presence of fecal contamination.

Indicator bacteria are not themselves dangerous to the health but are used to indicate the presence of a health risk.

The most commonly known fecal indicator bacteria are the coliforms.