TY - JOUR
T1 - Microbiological contamination assessment in higher education institutes
AU - Viegas, Carla
AU - Pimenta, Raquel
AU - Dias, Marta
AU - Gomes, Bianca
AU - Brito, Miguel
AU - Aranha Caetano, Liliana
AU - Carolino, Elisabete
AU - Gomes, Anita Quintal
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This work was supported by Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal for funding the Project “IPL MOMENTO ZERO” (ESTeSL/IPL/2020). H&TRC authors gratefully acknowledge the FCT/MCTES national support through the UIDB/05608/2020 and UIDP/05608/2020.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by Instituto Polit?cnico de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal for funding the Project ?IPL MOMENTO ZERO? (ESTeSL/IPL/2020). H&TRC authors gratefully acknowledge the FCT/MCTES national support through the UIDB/05608/2020 and UIDP/05608/2020.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - The higher education sector represents a unique environment and it acts as a work environment, a learning environment for students, and frequently, also a home environment. The aim of this study was to determine the microbial contamination (SARS-CoV-2, fungi, and bacteria) in Higher Education Facilities (HEI) by using active and passive sampling methods and combining culture-based methods with molecular tools targeting Aspergillus section Fumigati. In addition, the resistance to azole profile was also assessed. Surface samples showed a range of total bacterial contamination between 1 × 103 to 3.1 × 106 CFU·m−2, while Gram-negative bacteria ranged from 0 to 1.9 × 104 CFU·m−2. Fungal contamination ranged from 2 × 103 to 1.8 × 105 CFU·m−2 on MEA, and from 5 × 103 to 1.7 × 105 CFU·m−2 on DG18. The most prevalent species found on both media was Cladosporium sp. (47.36% MEA; 32.33% DG18). Aspergillus genera was observed on MEA (3.21%) and DG18 (14.66%), but not in the supplemented media used for the azole screening. Aspergillus section Fumigati was detected in 2 air samples (2.22%, 2 out of 90 samples) by qPCR. When testing for SARS-CoV-2 all results were negative. The present study showed that although cleaning and disinfection procedures are done regularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, being effective in eliminating SARS-CoV-2, surfaces were often contaminated with microorganisms other than SARS-CoV-2. This can be a result of increasing resistance to biocides, and to the wide range of environmental factors that can contribute to the dissemination of microbial contamination indoors.
AB - The higher education sector represents a unique environment and it acts as a work environment, a learning environment for students, and frequently, also a home environment. The aim of this study was to determine the microbial contamination (SARS-CoV-2, fungi, and bacteria) in Higher Education Facilities (HEI) by using active and passive sampling methods and combining culture-based methods with molecular tools targeting Aspergillus section Fumigati. In addition, the resistance to azole profile was also assessed. Surface samples showed a range of total bacterial contamination between 1 × 103 to 3.1 × 106 CFU·m−2, while Gram-negative bacteria ranged from 0 to 1.9 × 104 CFU·m−2. Fungal contamination ranged from 2 × 103 to 1.8 × 105 CFU·m−2 on MEA, and from 5 × 103 to 1.7 × 105 CFU·m−2 on DG18. The most prevalent species found on both media was Cladosporium sp. (47.36% MEA; 32.33% DG18). Aspergillus genera was observed on MEA (3.21%) and DG18 (14.66%), but not in the supplemented media used for the azole screening. Aspergillus section Fumigati was detected in 2 air samples (2.22%, 2 out of 90 samples) by qPCR. When testing for SARS-CoV-2 all results were negative. The present study showed that although cleaning and disinfection procedures are done regularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, being effective in eliminating SARS-CoV-2, surfaces were often contaminated with microorganisms other than SARS-CoV-2. This can be a result of increasing resistance to biocides, and to the wide range of environmental factors that can contribute to the dissemination of microbial contamination indoors.
KW - Active and passive sampling
KW - Aspergillus section Fumigati
KW - Azole resistance screening
KW - Bacteria
KW - Fungi
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113926556&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/atmos12081079
DO - 10.3390/atmos12081079
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113926556
SN - 2073-4433
VL - 12
JO - Atmosphere
JF - Atmosphere
IS - 8
M1 - 1079
ER -