I think he means "colonies" not "spores." Spores are typically too small to see.
In any case, the numbers of bacteria are irrelevant. E. coli are harmless bacteria that make up part of our normal intestinal flora--unless the hemorrhagic E. coli O157:H7 was cultured, the presence of E. coli is not dangerous. The only relevant issue when discussing the presence of bacteria is, how many pathogenic bacteria were present? If they aren't pathogenic, they aren't a problem. No one gets upset about the bacteria in their yogurt...
Yes, but they're a marker for fecal contamination.
Apparently, the bacteria really started to stink.
Gallardo said it was so bad, the samples made his entire lab smell like a hamster’s cage.
Wait wait; you are using REAL science too!
It’s like all the hype over H1N1 influenzas (people have no idea what swine origin H1N1-A means, and why it means nothing compared to an H5N1 virus with a human to human vector (*IF* that existed).
As you know, our bodies have more bacteria cells in and on them than we have cells, and the diversity of said flora is amazing. Same for ‘fungi’.
E coli *CAN* be a marker for fecal contamination, but folks gotta realize that if you grow contact cultures from 100 commonly used/touched items, you WILL grow E coli cultures from probably 20% of them, and that DOES NOT mean they were lying in dog or cow poop before you touched them.
Geesh.
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Is it E. coli bacteria?