GROWTH AND SURVIVAL OF BORDETELLA-BRONCHISEPTICA IN NATURAL-WATERS AND IN BUFFERED SALINE WITHOUT ADDED NUTRIENTS

Bordetella bronchiseptica showed increases in viable count when incubated in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), in reagent-grade water, and in local lake and pond waters, all without added nutrients. Within 48 to 72 h at 37-degrees-C in PBS and in lake and pond waters, stationary-phase populations of around 2.7 x 10(6) CFU/ml developed from washed B. bronchiseptica inocula of around 2 x 10(3) CFU/ml. Increases in CFU on the order of five- and eightfold, respectively, were observed in reagent-grade water and in seawater from the same sizes of inocula. The organisms remained viable for at least 3 weeks in PBS and in lake waters at 37-degrees-C. The possibility that carry-over of nutrients was responsible for growth was discounted by showing serial transfer of B. bronchiseptica in PBS under conditions in which Escherichia coli tested in parallel rapidly died out.