Computerized high-tech detection technology of immunofluorescence labelled waterborne pathogenic bacteria

The waterborne pathogenic bacteria, especially the enteric bacteria of human fecal origin, have become
currently a global public health issue. The detection and quantification of drinking water microorganisms
have been an essential part of any quality control or water safety management plan interconnected to
enteric bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Vibrio cholerae or to non-faecal bacterial
pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The standard methods of detecting waterborne pathogenic
bacteria are time-consuming due to the bacterial growing step in a specific culture media, followed by
isolation, microbiological and/or serological identiûcation and in some cases followed by subspeciûc
characterization. This study aimed to develop a faster, powerful, more sensitive and reproducible diagnostic
tool to monitor a specific pathogen contamination in drinking water (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) by specific
antibody-antigen interactions followed by a computerized technology to identify bacteria as a digital image
from water samples. Digital Image processing was carried out using National Instruments Vision Assistant
Software. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was specifically detected by immunofluorescence technique with
fluorophore tagged antibodies, and then the image formation in fluorescence microscopy was processed
by computer vision software functions organized in pipeline-like data analysis processing. Overall, these
techniques proved to be a reliable one, time-effective and sensitive for diagnosis and prevention of drinking
water quality and waterborne bacterial disease.