The quality of water used for drinking, irrigation, industrial food processing or for recreational purposes, has a very important impact on human and animal health. So far, 33 surface water localities have been examined in territory of Vojvodina for the presence of 7 different viruses. The prevalence of enteric viruses in the total number of examined localities was up to 60%. These results unequivocally confirm that there is a risk to the health of animals and humans in the area that gravitates to the examined surface water. The risk to public and animal health is particularly significant in areas and localities where the tested surface water are used for agricultural purposes.

The lack of water on a global level has a direct impact on the development of agriculture and food industry, which is directly reflected in the in the increase of food production. The fact that water is a limiting factor in the production of food and the knowledge that a large number of people dying of starvation, indicating the importance of water in food industry. In addition to the food industry, pharmaceutical industry is also directly related to human health. Both of these industries not only consume large amounts of water but also have specific requirements in terms of the quality and water conditioning. Due to the high level of quality, these waters are subject to special statutory supervision, in which chemicals are without certificates FDA (Food and Drug Administration) should not be added to the water, whether it is a water treatment or conditioning. Requests of this kind often cause problems and limit the development of the food and pharmaceutical industries.

In this research microbiological status of water from three wells in a particular food factory was investigated. In raw water samples total number of aerobic mesophilic bacteria was determined with two methods - standardized and Petrifilm method which is in Serbia still an alternative method. Number of population of aerobic psychotrophic bacteria was also tested. ATP level was also analyzed. For classical microbiological method and quick method of evaluation of microbiological status correlation was reseached. Results show that coefficient of correlation was higher than 0.99 for the two applied methods. In most water samples the higher number of bacteria formed colonies when Petrifilm method was used. Connection between number of bacteria and level of total and free ATP is not statistically significant, while connection with variation of these values can be described as high direct linear correlation.