AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Seasonality of Bacteria and Viruses in the Air of a Daycare Center
AARON PRUSSIN II, Amit Vikram, Kyle Bibby, Linsey Marr, Virginia Tech
Abstract Number: 71 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract Daycare centers are foci for the spread of certain infectious diseases, some of which are transmitted via aerosols. Outbreaks of certain diseases are seasonal, but the seasonal dynamics of the bacterial and viral microbiome in indoor air have not been investigated. Filters from the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system were collected every two weeks over the course of a year in a daycare center. Bacteria and viruses were extracted from the filters, and the communities were analyzed through 16S sequencing and metagenomic analysis respectively. Microbial community structure relationships with season and building parameters (temperature, relative humidity, and air flow through the HVAC system) were quantified. A relatively large abundance of human-associated microbes, specifically fecal associated bacteria (Enterobacteriales and Clostriales), was found in the air. Although daycare centers are commonly thought of as “dirty” when it comes to microbes, not all microbes found in the air were harmful. Approximately 6% of airborne bacteria were Lactobacillus, which are considered beneficial for human health. There were no significant differences observed between microbial community structure and season or building parameters. A sample collected when the daycare center was closed had a significantly different community structure from the others. These results indicate that children and occupants in the daycare, and not environmental conditions, are the major drivers of the microbial communities.