Insights into microbial diversity in private-well water in New Orleans, Louisiana

Private well water systems in rural areas that are not adequately regulated will result in poor drinking water quality, loss of water supply, and pose human health in great risk. Increased attention has been devoted to the direct detection of specific pathogenic organisms in groundwater by using molecular methods and next-generation sequencing (NGS). The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), Legionella spp., Mycobacterium spp. and pathogenic free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri in groundwater in the rural areas surrounding New Orleans.