Preliminary Investigation of Legionella pneumophila Contamination in Potting Soil

Objective To investigate the contamination condition of Legionella pneumophila in the potting soil.Methods Potting soil in the flowerpot located in the public place,commercial packaged potting soil and organic fertilized potting soil were collected.Nested-PCR and realtime PCR based on Mip gene was used to detect Legionella pneumophila.Results The Legionella positive rate of potting soil sample was 51.9%(27/52) by nested-PCR and 73.1%(38/52) by real-time TaqMan PCR,with a mean copy number of 90 060 copies/g soil.Conclusion There is Legionella pneumophila contamination in the potting soil.