Fecal pollution by human and animals has seriously threatened the safety of drinking and recreation water and negatively impacted on economy. Currently, bacteria of total coliform, total fecal coliform, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp. and Clostridium spp. are used as the standard fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). However, recent studies demonstrate that the density of the FIB correlates only with the degree of a fecal pollution and provides no information about the sources of pollution. To accurately identify the sources of fecal pollution, microbial source tracking (MST) methods have been developed and used in the United States and other developed countries for effective management of water resource and monitoring. MST methods are techniques matching microbe(s) from a polluted site with that (or those) from an animal source to suggest the source of fecal pollution. This paper is to critically review the recent studies on fecal indicator bacteria and techniques used for MST and to discuss the latest developments of using Faecalibacterium as an alternative FIB for MST, including its future applications in water management and monitoring.
