Long-term sampling of airborne bacteria and fungi into a non-evaporating liquid

Abstract

Conventional sampling of bioaerosols into liquid impingers can only be performed with water or another low-viscosity liquid as the collection medium. Since these liquids evaporate quickly, sampling is generally limited to short-time periods of 15–30 min. In this study, our recently developed “BioSampler”, has been used with a non-evaporating, higher viscosity liquid that does not kill nor grow microorganisms, and thus has been used to sample airborne bacteria and fungi for several hours. In side-by-side comparisons with the conventional AGI-30 impinger, sampling indoor air environments over short-time periods, the BioSampler yielded equivalent or higher culturable counts for bacteria and fungi than the AGI-30 when both samplers were operated for 30 min with 20 ml of phosphate buffer as the collection medium. The bio-efficiency of the AGI-30 decreased rapidly with sampling time until the liquid had evaporated after about 1 1 2 h. When the BioSampler was operated for 4 h with non-evaporating heavy white mineral oil, the collection efficiency decreased only moderately due to minimal reaerosolization of collected particles and gentle collection of the viable microorganisms. Samples obtained through long-term sampling with the BioSampler may detect culturable bacteria and fungi at lower ambient concentration levels than is possible through conventional liquid impingement sampling over short-time periods.