Editorial: Microbial Source Tracking.

Human and animal fecal pollution may adversely affect inland and coastal waters with negative consequences for water supplies, recreational water uses and shellfish production. Fecal pollution of waters is a significant health risk and can lead to economic losses due to shellfish bed closures, bathing prohibitions and serious limitations on water resources. Fecal contamination in water is currently evaluated by the enumeration of traditional fecal indicator bacteria (FIB; i.e., Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci) which are not indicating the fecal pollution source. Microbial source tracking (MST) methods allow the identification of fecal pollution sources that is critical for management and remediation of water quality. This special issue in Frontiers in Microbiology section Microbiotechnology offers the collection of 19 original research manuscripts, which contribute to the current knowledge on the microbial source tracking and highlight the latest developments.