Health and safety: the use of metagenomics approach to study the spectrum of water microbiodata towards ensuring the post-flood pathogen-free water sources

• Main Author: Noor, Siti Suraiya Md
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan, Universiti Sains Malaysia 2017
• Subjects: R Medicine
• Online Access: http://eprints.usm.my/52349/1/DR.%20SITI%20SURAIYA%20BT.%20MD%20NOOR-OCR.pdf; http://eprints.usm.my/52349/
• Institution: Universiti Sains Malaysia

Recent massive flood in kelantan lead to contamination of water supply to the public. The magnitude of of the contamination is very difficult to be measured by the conventional coliform count method. We used a metagenomic approach to estimate the burden of microbiological contamination of the water following the massive flood. The water sampled during the massive blood and 6 months after the incidence extracted, analysed and compared. The results showed that eventhough Pseudomas predominates the entire microorganisms population during flood and non flood water, there are few pathogenic organisms that really need special attention. The metagenomics approached is very usefull as it provide the full spectrum of the diversity of the organisms presents in the sampled water. The evidence is solid and have a very high value both to the community and also to the scientist.