Abstract

VAZQUEZ, Cristian Joao; MORENO, Betzy Juliette  and  CADENA, Denisse Iveth. Effectiveness of the use of diatoms in the filtration of waterborne bacteria. La Granja [online]. 2022, vol.36, n.2, pp.88-97. ISSN 1390-8596.  https://doi.org/10.17163/lgr.n36.2022.07.

Bacterial transmission to humans can be carried by water and cause enteric diseases, so the objective of this paper isto evaluate the effectiveness of the use of diatoms in the filtration of waterborne bacteria. The study was carried outat Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo, Ecuador; from October 2019 to March 2020, combining culture techniques on blood agar and MacConkey agar, colony quantification and filtration versus filter time and length. 120 dilutions samples of commercial strains of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were used to contaminate the water in such a way that the efficiency of filtration in diatoms of different origins could be observed. The results were contrasted with the ranges established by the World Health Organization and positive and negative controls were carried out on the culture media and water. The diatoms of Guayaquil were the ones that induced a better filtration of the water compared to the diatoms of Palmira. When applying the filter bed of 10 cm of diatoms, a growth of 86 CFU/100ml was obtained in 24 hours, while when the amount of the filter was increased to 20 cm, a decrease in the bacterial load of the water was observed by 21 CFU/100ml in 10 hours. According to the range established by the WHO, bacterial growth decreased, which indicates that diatom filters have the ability to retain bacteria. For this reason, it is presumed that, when combined with additional materials such as activated carbon, their filtering potential would increase.

Keywords : Diatoms; filter; culture; filter bed.

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