AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Effect of Sampling Flow Rates on Virus Collection Efficiencies of a BioSampler vs. an All-Glass Impinger
John Lednicky, Julia Loeb, Kevin Fennelly, Diandra Anwar, Sewon Oh, CHANG-YU WU, University of Florida
Abstract Number: 481 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract The dynamics of airborne virus transmission are not well understood, especially since it is not easy to collect virus aerosols with high efficiencies using air samplers that are commonly deployed for the microbiological assessment of air quality. One reason for the challenge in collecting virus aerosols is the design of the air samplers that primarily targets the collection of airborne bacteria and fungi and their spores; such a design is relatively inefficient for collecting smaller-sized particles. In this study, methods to improve the efficacies of the collection of viral aerosol particles by common air samplers were explored. The collection efficiencies of an SKC BioSampler® and an All-Glass Impinger 30 (AGI-30) operated under variable flow rates and sampling times were evaluated using laboratory-generated aerosols of MS2 bacteriophage. The BioSampler’s efficiency was higher than the AGI-30 when it was used at a collection flow rate lower than the manufacturer’s recommended rate of 12.5 L/min, whereas the opposite was true for the AGI-30. In follow-up work, we opportunistically tested whether we could detect airborne viruses using BioSamplers operated for the same length of time but at two different flow rates in the vicinity of sick office workers. For both field trials, virus collection was better when the BioSamplers were operated at a flow rate of 8 L/min instead of the recommended flow rate of 12.5 L/min.