AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Study of the Aerosolization Mechanisms of Bacteria in Single Particle Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy
NICOLAS GROULX, Nathalie Turgeon, Caroline Duchaine, Université Laval, Canada
Abstract Number: 20 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract The study of the aerosolization mechanisms of microorganisms is a novel field of research in which few is being published from a fundamental point of view. For example, the distribution of microorganisms (bacteria, virus, spores) inside a single droplet of bioaerosol as not been precisely determined yet, as well as its infectious potential. Also, the effects of ionic charges of the nebulization media upon viral bioaerosols have not been deeply studied, which leaves numbers of unanswered questions regarding the efficiency of protective masks.
We propose to study the distribution of microorganisms in a single bioaerosol particle. The setup which allows a controlled dilution of bioaerosols is described in order to show how E. coli bacteria are distributed inside aerosols by analysis of single particles impacted on a black filter. The coaerosolization of E. coli and Pseudomas fluorescens has been performed as well. The results show surprisingly that even if P. fluorescens cells are more numerous than E. coli in our experiments, it doesn’t affect the specific distributions of each type of bacteria in aerosol particles. This suggests that in those conditions, E. coli and P. fluorescens are not aerosolyzed the same way and that further investigations with this system will be performed.