Ji Young Kim, Steven Lopez, Fletcher Passow
Abstract:
AguaClara plants effectively remove turbidity and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) from drinking water sources in Honduras. However, no study has documented the plants’ ability to remove specific diarrheal pathogen species. This study identified best practices for collecting and shipping pathogen DNA from sampling locations in Honduras back to Cornell University. A literature review identified options for filtration systems, chemical DNA preservation solutions, and shipping protocols. Tests of the clogging behavior of 5um and 0.1um pore size membrane filters demonstrated that this filtration method’s 60 h projected run time for a 10L samples outweighs its gains in simplicity.
