Impaction onto a Glass Slide or Agar versus Impingement into a Liquid for the Collection and Recovery of Airborne Microorganisms

Abstract

To study impaction versus impingement for the collection and recovery of viable airborne microorganisms, three new bioaerosol samplers have been designed and built. They differ from each other by the medium onto which the bioaerosol particles are collected (glass, agar, and liquid) but have the same inlet and collection geometries and the same sampling flow rate. The bioaerosol concentrations recorded by three different collection techniques have been compared with each other: impaction onto a glass slide, impaction onto an agar medium, and impingement into a liquid. It was found that the particle collection efficiency of agar slide impaction depends on the concentration of agar in the collection medium and on the sampling time, when samples are collected on a nonmoving agar slide. Impingement into a liquid showed anomalous behavior with respect to the sampling flow rate. Optimal sampling conditions in which all three new samplers exhibit the same overall sampling efficiency for nonbiological particles have been established. Inlet and collection efficiencies of about 100% have been achieved for all three devices at a sampling flow rate of 10 liters/min. The new agar slide impactor and the new impinger were then used to study the biological factors affecting the overall sampling efficiency. Laboratory experiments on the total recovery of a typical environmental microorganism, Pseudomonas fluorescens ATCC 13525, showed that both sampling methods, impaction and impingement, provided essentially the same total recovery when relatively nonstressed microorganisms were sampled under optimal sampling conditions. Comparison tests of the newly developed bioaerosol samplers with those commercially available showed that the incorporation of our research findings into the design of the new samplers yields better performance data than data from currently available samplers.