Planning our holidays

Question

Hello,

Last year we were at the North Sea. (…) This bring me to my question… This year we are planning to spend our holidays in Austria, but we are not sure about where exactly we should go. We are wondering if we should chose an accommodation directly at a swimming lake or on a mountain pasture (alp; in German: “Alm”)?
What about Pseudomonas and swimming in a lake? Is it better to avoid lakes (I am referring only to lakes with 1a water quality of course) completely and prefer chlorinated pools instead? Or is this nothing we have to worry about? Natural lake, barrier lake or swimming in a river? Maybe you could help us to take a decision! Many thanks.

Answer

Dear questioner,

At swimming in the North Sea you can be almost sure that there are no pseudomonads in the water. If you have a look in the internet with regard to the water quality of Austrian lakes you find information that the water quality is rated especially well according to EU guiding values. However, for such kind of analysis there is no check for pseudomonads but for “faecal germs”. Since pseudomonas is a water bug it cannot be excluded that pseudomonads can be found even in a lake that has been rated to be very clean. Therefore, an accommodation directly at the lake is considered to be rather unsafe. The mountain pasture seems to be safer. But even there, it cannot be excluded 100% that pseudomonas is present. Wherever water stands for a longer time, e.g. in deep puddles, pseudomonas can be present. Since the contact with pseudomonas can never be excluded for sure you should especially avoid areas with low, standing water. I hope this information helps a bit for your planning.

All the best, Barbara Kahl

23.06.2010