Distribution Survey of Floating Bacteria in General Environments by Air Sampler

Abstract

Aerosols or droplets that float in the air contain pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses. In this study, we investigated the distribution of airborne bacteria using an air sampler under the state where the human is in action.

We sampled airborne bacteria from the general environment at 12 sites in the university. Airborne bacteria were present at all sites. The strains of CNS, Micrococcus spp., Corynebacterium spp., and Bacillus spp. detected in the general environment at a high frequency (>75%) are often identified as skin indigenous bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus was detected in approximately 25% of the samples along with methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA).

Furthermore, we investigated the change in the number of airborne bacteria in the laboratory. The results demonstrated that, during laboratory training, the number of bacteria increased nine fold compared to the number before training. CNS, Micrococcus spp. is involved in the increase. Moreover, MSSA was also detected as one of the airborne bacteria during training.

We further aim to sample the air in hospital environments using Air Sampler and investigate the distribution of airborne bacteria under different conditions.