TABLE 4.

Recovery of 2 ×10⁵ plasmid DNA copies spiked into human and canine fecal dilutions

Fecal source	Sample fecal concn (mg/liter)	Measured no. of recovered DNA copies	% PCR amplification of plasmid relative to controla
Human	5,000	2.6 (±0.02) × 105	91
	1,000	3.3 (±1.0) × 105	116
	200	2.7 (±0.2) × 105	96
	40	3.7 (±0.8) × 105	124 (±29)
	8	2.9 (±0.1) × 105	99 (±4.5)
	1.6	2.6 (±0.5) × 105	89 (±16)
	0.32	2.9 (±0.4) × 105	99 (±13)
Canine	10,000	2.2 (±0.4) × 105	75 (±15)
	2,000	3.6 (±0.8) × 105	123 (±26)
	400	2.9 (±0.1) × 105	100 (±4.1)
	80	2.7 (±0.2) × 105	91 (±8.3)
	16	2.3 (±0.6) × 105	78 (±20)
	3.2	2.4 (±0.4) × 105	82 (±14)
	0.64	2.6 (±0.4) × 105	88 (±15)
Control	0	2.8 (±0.1) × 105	100

^aPercent PCR amplification = (measured no. of copies in the presence of feces/measured no. of copies in the control) × 100.