Effects of condensational growth on culturability of airborne bacteria: Implications for sampling and control of bioaerosols

The effect of condensational growth, one of the important characteristics for both monitoring and controlling bioaerosols, on bioaerosol culturability was assessed in this study. Three species of bacteria (Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Escherichia coli) were used. The measured growth factors of the bioaerosols ranged from 1.07 to 1.67 under various conditions and these data coincided with calculated results using both the thermodynamic approach and the moment method. The culturable fractions obtained using an Anderson type impactor were observed to increase as a result the formation of the liquid layer around the bioaerosols via condensational growth of the particle, which correspondingly resulted in both increase of physical collection efficiency and decrease of impaction stress. The culturable fractions of sampled bioaerosols increased up to 43% (for S. epidermidis), 27% (for P. fluorescens), and 12% (for E. coli) by condensational growth, compared to no condensational growth. However, the culturable fraction decreased when the condensational growth was excessive, probably due to heat transfer to the bioaerosols during the condensational process.

Research highlights
► The condensational growth affected the culturability of airborne bacteria.
► The culturable concentration increased due to increase of collection efficiency and decrease of impaction stress.
► The culturability decreased when the condensational growth was excessive due to heat transfer to the bioaerosols.