Catherine;
In response to your question about bacteria in water films left after washing
of equipment, carcasses, etc - I don't know that field but would suggest one
approach would be to grow a variety of representative bacteria on radiolabelled
substrates and to use these "hot" bacteria in a miniature, lab-scale version of
washing. This should give you a highly sensitive approach in which the
bacteria could be detected in a scintillation counter. Other ideas might
include detecting marker molecules e.g. LPS, or employing a fluorescent-based
antibody detection system. I don't know how practical any of these ideas are
but they might be worth considering.
Good luck,
Bob McLean
Dept. Biology
Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, Tx 78666
USA
(512)245-3365 phone
(512)245-8713 FAX
Email: RM12 at swt.edu
