MICROBIOLOGY Study Guide - 2012

CHAPTER 14. SANITARY INDICATOR MICROORGANISMS

14.2. ENTEROCOCCI

Enterococci permanently inhabit the human intestine and are excreted into the environment in significant amounts with feces (up to 108–109 viable Cells per 1 g of feces). Due to their biological properties, enterococci are generally accepted as indicators of recent fecal contamination. Compared to coliform Bacteria, they die off faster in the environment and are incapable of multiplying in natural habitats, with the exception of certain food products. Enterococci have no environmental counterparts. Enterococcus faecalis predominantly populates the human intestine, whereas E. faecium is mainly found in the gut of animals.

Enterococci do not alter their properties in the environment and are highly resistant to adverse factors. They withstand heating at 60 °C for 30 min and are capable of proliferating in media containing 6.5% sodium chloride, 40% Bile, and at a pH of 9.6–10.

Consumption of food in which enterococci have multiplied can lead to foodborne toxicoinfection.

Quantitative enterococcal enumeration is adopted in the international Water standard as an indicator of recent fecal contamination.



Last update: 13/08/2026

Editorial and Educational Adaptation: This material has been compiled based on the primary/original source text. The project team performed an editorial review, corrected technical inaccuracies, structured sections, and adapted the content for an educational format.

What was processed:

  • elimination of formatting defects (OCR errors, structural breaks, corrupted characters);
  • editorial organization of content;
  • standardization of terminology in accordance with academic sources;
  • verification of factual statements against the original source text.

All mentions of the author, publication year, and origin of the primary text have been preserved in accordance with the source.