AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Fungal Concentrations in Air Samples Correlated with Environmental Relative Moldiness Index Values in French Homes
DELPHINE MÉHEUST, Pierre Le Cann, Tiina Reponen, Larry Wymer, Stephen Vesper, Jean-Pierre Gangneux, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique, IRSET, France
Abstract Number: 85 Working Group: The Indoor Microbiome
Abstract Exposure to homes with high (fourth quartile) Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) values have been shown to be associated with the development of childhood asthma. The ERMI is derived from the analysis of a dust sample obtained from the living room and bedroom. We determined if aerosol-based measures of fungal contamination were correlated with dust-based ERMI values in Brittany, France dwellings. Dust and air samples were obtained from 40 dwellings and analyzed by quantitative PCR (QPCR) and/or by culturing on malt extract agar (MEA). Dust samples were collected by vacuuming two m$^2 in the living room and two m$^2 in a bedroom for five min each with a Mitest™ sampler-fitted vacuum. The Coriolis cyclone collector (Bertin Technologies, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France) was used at a flow rate of 300 L/min for 10 minutes to sample air in the living room and bedroom. Airborne microorganisms were sampled in collection liquid with an initial volume of 15 mL. The 36 fungi that make-up the ERMI were analyzed by QPCR in the dust and aliquots of the air samples. Air samples were also analyzed by culturing. ERMI values were correlated with QPCR-based fungal concentrations in air samples in the living room (p<0.001; Kendall’s tau =0.438, p concordance 0.719) and bedroom (p=0.028; Kendall’s tau =0.212, p concordance 0.606). In addition, the culture data from the Coriolis samples were significantly correlated with the ERMI values in the living room (p=0.002; Kendall’s tau =0.313, p concordance 0.656) and bedroom (p=0.001; Kendall’s tau =0.344, p concordance 0.672). Some fungal species, such as Penicillium brevicompactum, Cladosporium cladosporioïdes and Wallemia sebi, were commonly found in both French air and dust samples. Aerosol samples obtained with the Coriolis cyclone collector and analyzed by QPCR or culturing may provide a useful addition to the QPCR analysis of dust in understanding indoor fungal contamination.