Source identification of airborne Escherichia coli of swine house surroundings using ERIC-PCR and REP-PCR.

Evidence is mounting that microorganisms originating from livestock impact the air quality of the animal houses themselves and the public in the surrounding neighborhoods. The aim of this study was to develop efficient bacterial source tracking capabilities to identify sources of Escherichia coli aerosol pollution caused by pigs. Airborne E. coli were isolated from indoor air, upwind air (10 and 50 m away) and downwind air samples (10, 50, 100, 200 and 400 m away) for five swine houses using six-stage Andersen microbial samplers and Reuter-Centrifugal samplers (RCS). E. coli strains from pig fecal samples were also collected simultaneously. The enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerize chain reaction (ERIC-PCR) and the repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP-PCR) approaches were used to study the genetic variability and to determine the strain relationships among E. coli isolated from different sites in each swine house. Results showed that 35.1% (20/57) of the bacterial DNA fingerprints from the fecal isolates matched with the corresponding strains isolated from indoor and downwind air samples (similarity > or = 90%). E. coli strains from the indoor and downwind air samples were closely related to the E. coli strains isolated from feces, while those isolated from upwind air samples (swine house C) had low similarity (61-69%). Our results suggest that some strains isolated from downwind and indoor air originated in the swine feces. Effective hygienic measures should be taken in animal farms to prevent or minimize the downwind spread of microorganism aerosol.

Simultaneous detection of airborne aflatoxin, ochratoxin and zearalenone in a poultry house by immunoaffinity clean-up and high-performance liquid chromatography.

An AOZ method, based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), was optimized on HPLC condition such as mobile phase and wavelength to simultaneously quantify six kinds of mycotoxins [four aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA) and zearalenone (ZEA)]. Conditions for immunoaffinity clean-up, HPLC and photo-derivatization were optimized in this study and successfully applied in assessment of airborne mycotoxins from a poultry house in Dalian, China. Fifty-two air samples were collected with AGI-30 air samplers using pure water as collection media. Twenty air samples (20/52, 38.46%) were positive for four toxins. Among the positive samples, airborne mycotoxin concentrations (mean+/-S.D.) for AFG(2), AFB(1), and ZEA were 0.189+/-0.024 (n=9), 0.080+/-0.003 (n=11) and 2.363+/-0.030 (n=5)ng/m(3) air, while the concentration for OTA was 8.530 (n=1)ng/m(3). No positive sample was found for either AFG(1) or AFB(2). A chicken may inhale 0.019-0.057 ng AFG(2), 0.013-0.019 ng AFB(1), 0.436-0.513 ng ZEA, and 1.706 ng OTA, respectively, in a day. A poultry worker may inhale 0.504-1.512 ng AFB(1), 0.752-2.28 ng AFG(2), 68.240 ng OTA, and 17.432-20.512 ng ZEA in a working day. This is the first report on airborne mycotoxins in poultry house. These data may have importance in animal and public health implications.

Transmission identification of Escherichia coli aerosol in chicken houses to their environments using ERIC-PCR.

In order to study E. coli aerosol spreading from chicken houses to their surrounding air, air samples, including indoor and outdoor air (upwind 10 and 50 m as well as downwind 10, 50, 100, 200 and 400 m away) of 5 chicken houses were collected using six-stage Andersen microbial samplers and Reuter-Centrifugal samplers (RCS). E. coli concentrations (CFU/m(3) air) collected from different sampling sites were calculated. E. coli strains from chicken feces samples were also isolated. Furthermore, the enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR method was applied to amplify the isolated E. coli strain DNA samples. Through the genetic similarity analyses of the E. coli obtained from different sampling sites, the spreading of bioaerosol from animal houses to the ambient air was characterized. The results showed that the isolated E. coli concentrations in indoor air (9-63 CFU/m(3)) in 5 chicken houses were higher than those in upwind and downwind air, but there were no significant differences between the indoor and downwind sites 10 m away from all the 5 houses (P>0.05). The phylogenetic tree indicated that a part of the E. coli (34.1%) isolated from indoor air had 100% similarity with those isolated from feces, and that most of E. coli isolated (54.5%) from downwind at 10, 50, 100 or even 200 m had 100% similarity with those isolated from indoor air or feces too. But those isolated from upwind air had a lower similarity (73%-92%) with corresponding strains isolated from indoor air or feces. Our results suggested that some strains isolated from downwind air and indoor air originated in the chicken feces, but most of isolates obtained from upwind air samples did not come from the chicken feces or indoor air. Effective hygienic measures should be taken in animal farms to prevent or minimize downwind spreading of microorganism aerosol.

Concentration of airborne endotoxins and airborne bacteria in Chinese rabbit houses.

Concentration of airborne endotoxins, airborne aerobic bacteria and airborne aerobic gram-negative bacteria were measured in 3 rabbit houses. Further, the species composition of the airborne gram-negative bacterial flora was investigated. The total amount of airborne endotoxin ranged from 22 to 774 EU/m3 (Endotoxin Units/m3). The number of total airborne aerobic bacteria varied between 780 and 20100 CFU/m3, the number of airborne aerobic gram-negative bacteria between 39 and 1030 CFU/m3. Most gram-negative bacterial isolates belonged to the family Enterobacteriaceae with E. coli as primary species. In two rabbit houses also airborne Pasteurella multocida spp. multocida, the most common respiratory pathogen of rabbits, was isolated.