The occurrence of Salmonella, Campylobacter and Yersinia spp. in river and lake waters.

In order to assess Salmonella, Campylobacter and Yersinia spp. occurrence in surface waters and to compare it with the standard faecal indicator bacteria, 86 river and lake samples, from eight sampling sites in Northern Greece were examined for the presence of these pathogens in parallel to total and faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci. A total of 17 Salmonellae, 14 Campylobacters and 9 Yersiniae were isolated. Only in Salmonella positive samples the geometric means of total and faecal coliforms were found significantly higher (p < 0.01) than in the negative samples, whereas the presence of Campylobacters and Yersiniae may not be predicted by the standard indicator bacteria.