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Escherichia coli, usually abbreviated to E. coli, discovered by Theodor Escherich, a pediatrician and bacteriologist, is one of the main species of bacteria that live in the lower intestines of warm-blooded animals, including birds and mammals. They are necessary for the proper digestion of food and are part of the intestinal flora. Its presence in groundwater is a common indicator of fecal contamination. The name comes from its discoverer, Theodor Escherich. It belongs among the Enterobacteriaceae, and is commonly used as a model organism for bacteria in general. One of the root words of their family's scientific name, "enteric", refers to the intestine, hence "gastroenteritis" (from 'gastro-', stomach, 'entero-' intestine, '-itis', disease). "Fecal" is the adjective for organisms that live in feces, so it is often used synonymously with "enteric".
The number of individual E. coli bacteria in the feces that one human passes in one day averages between 100 billion and 10 trillion. All the different kinds of fecal coli bacteria and all the very similar bacteria that live in the ground (in soil or decaying plants, of which the most common is Enterobacter aerogenes are grouped together under the name coliform bacteria. Technically, the "coliform group" is defined to be all the aerobic and facultative anaerobic, non-spore-forming, Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria that ferment lactose with the production of gas within 48 hours at 35°C (95°F). In the body, this gas is released as flatulence).
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