Enterococci bacteria found in Nova Scotia beaches

Known for its scenic beauty and as a favourite destination to cool off for locals and tourists alike, Queensland Beach and Bayswater Beach are temporarily closed due to water quality concerns.

“We did our regular testing for both Queensland and Bayswater Tuesday and we got the results on Friday and unfortunately, the samples did not meet the requirements of the Canadian Recreation Water Quality Guidelines,” explained Paul D’eon, director of Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service.

Marine biologist Herb Vandermeulen says sample testing like this is critical.

“You’re looking for bacterial count that might indicate other types of disease organisms being present. It’s not Enterococci as a bacterial group that are a problem, it’s other associated disease organisms that might be in that mix.”

The water testing samples showed traces of Enterococci bacteria, which can cause clinical infections to humans, including Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium.

These can cause:

• urinary tract infections (UTIs)
• bacteremia
• infective endocarditis
• meningitis
• intra-abdominal infections
• wound infections

The province does testing of all 25 supervised beaches across the province.

“The only ones that we’ve tested are Queensland and Bayswater and we know those ones did not meet quality but we know nothing about the other beaches in the surrounding area,” said D’eon.

This is not the first time high bacterial levels have been found in Nova Scotia’s waters.

Earlier in the week, blue-green algae was detected in Long Lake, while this bacteria is different to enterococci, Vandermeulen said it is connected.

“It usually comes from some sort of sources that flushed into lake or marine beaches and those nutrients that come in by a similar manner can lead to these blue-green algae blooms [and] these cyanobacterial blooms in lake,” he said. “So it’s a whole package of things happening, and unfortunately in urban environments, it becomes more prevalent.”

Vandermeulen said particularly for lakes, Nova Scotia is seeing toxin production without seeing a bloom. He said this needs to be investigated.

“In the province, we don’t have anyone that researches this. We need to check this out much more carefully than we have in the past. Otherwise, pets are going to keep drinking the water and dying.”

Jeff Goodall, a veterinarian at the Sunnyview Animal Care Centre, said both people and their pets should remain off the contaminated waters in the meantime.

“Sometimes they’ll go pale blue mucus membrane,” Goodall said of pets drinking contaminated water. “They’ll start vomiting. That’s usually the neurotoxin stage, and sincerely, by the time clients realize it’s happening, it’s too late.”

The province has collected ocean samples from Queensland and Bayswater Beach for additional testing on Friday. Those results will come in on Monday, which will determine if people need to continue to stay out of the water.