Designing and conducting standardized microbiological method interlaboratory validation studies is challenging because most methods are manual, rather than instrument-based, and results from the methods are typically subjective. Determinations of method recovery, in particular, are problematic, due to difficulties in assessing the true spike amount. The standardization and validation process used for the seven most recent USEPA 1600-series pathogen monitoring methods has begun to address these challenges. A staged development process was used to ensure that methods were adequately tested and standardized before resources were dedicated to interlaboratory validation. The interlaboratory validation studies for USEPA Method 1622, for Cryptosporidium, USEPA Method 1601 for coliphage, and USEPA Method 1605 for Aeromonas assessed method performance using different approaches, due the differences in the nature of the target analytes and the data quality needs of each study. However, the use of enumerated spikes in all of the studies allowed method recovery and precision to be assessed, and also provided the data needed to establish quantitative quality control criteria for the methods.
