Dog Doo Could be a Serious Water Contaminant

There's a reason that the Town makes you clean up after your dog, and it is really not all about inconveniencing those around you. Dog feces left to wash into groundwater and waterways can lead to some serious illness, and now experts are suggesting that this could be a far more serious contaminant problem than anyone could have imagined.

A new study recently published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology through the American Chemical Society (ACS) details how scientists have developed a new genetic test to figure out how much water contaminant comes from dog feces alone.

"Contamination from dog feces is a concern because it can harbor antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli and other bacteria and parasites that can infect humans - and there are nearly 70 million domesticated dogs in the US," the ACS reported in a recent release.

According to the research team behind this study, our waterways are very susceptible to a number of fecal contamination sources. But while sewage leaks and even farm animal and processed manure contaminants are closely monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local water authorities, contamination from domesticated dogs is far more difficult to track.

Some current methods for tracing this domestic dog factor involve looking for certain genes found in the gut bacteria of canines. However, this remains relatively inaccurate, simply because the microbial communities that reside within humans and their pets often overlap.

To resolve this, researchers from the EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory developed a new testing method that focuses on highlighting 11 genetic markers that are common among most domestic dog samples, but missing from human feces.

Field tests of the method have already proven that it works, and the EPA now hopes to apply this sort of testing to gain a better idea about canine contaminants. Such data should help the agency and local parties determine what action, if any, should be taken to ensure our water remains clean and safe.