Characteristics of Microbial Aerosols Released from Chicken and Swine Feces

Figures & data

Figure 1. Total number of (a, b) fungal and (c, d) bacterial colonies released from (a, c) chicken and (b, d) swine feces throughout the experimental period.

Figure 2. Size-specific (a, b) bacterial and (c, d) fungal colonies released from (a, d) swine and (b, c) chicken feces throughout the experimental period.

Figure 3. Distributions of (a, c) fungal and (b, d) bacterial aerosol concentrations in six size ranges released from (a, b) chicken and (c, d) swine feces.

Table 1. Identification of predominant bacteria/fungi emitted from swine and chicken feces

	Particle Size (μ m)
Samples	≥0.65 to <1.1	≥1.1 to <2.1	≥2.1 to <3.3	≥3.3 to <4.7	≥4.7 to <7	≥7	Sum ^b	Percent ^c	Identification (Genus)
Bacteria (swine)	777 ^a	64	25	19	37	30	952	39.3	Stenotrophomonas
	695	57	10	15	21	12	810	33.5	Sphingomonas
	381	18	2	3	5	6	415	17.1	Chryseobacterium
	94	7	5	1	7	1	115	4.8	Acinetobacter
	21	12	14	9	4	5	65	2.7	Streptomyces
	1,997	170	59	54	83	58	2,420	100	Total ^d
Fungi (swine)	3	62	189	63	25	2	344	29.4	Acremonium
	3	24	80	39	13	1	160	13.7	Schizophyllum
	3	19	72	48	10	5	157	13.4	Cladosporium
	2	50	18	36	6	4	116	9.9	Penicillium
	12	227	522	302	84	24	1,171	100	Total
Bacteria (chicken)	10,063	1,488	763	817	683	734	14,548	56.9	Stenotrophomonas
	3,168	3,381	660	641	750	396	8,996	35.2	Sphingomonas
	62	295	81	148	175	148	909	3.6	Rhodcoccus
	116	321	112	117	119	113	898	3.5	Brevundimonas
	0	1	38	17	5	5	66	0.3	Micrococcus
	13,451	5,516	1,682	1,755	1,763	1,423	25,590	100	Total
Fungi (chicken)	0	228	571	177	76	27	1,079	65.9	Cladosporium
	3	90	87	88	19	1	288	17.6	Plectosphaerella
	0	18	19	2	3	1	43	2.6	Penicillium
	9	397	771	311	113	37	1,638	100	Total
Notes: ^aSum of total colonies with specific character and size over the entire experiment (sampling hourly for 48 hr); ^bSum of total colonies with specific character from six different size groups over the entire experiment; ^cSum of total colonies from six different size groups with specific character)/(total colonies collected); ^dSum of total colonies from each specific size group over the entire experiment. Only most abundant colony group with specific character is listed.

Table 2. Emission factors of culturable bioaerosols (CFU/hr/g) from chicken and swine feces

	Chicken				Swine
Type	1	2	3	Mean (SD)	1	2	3	Mean (SD)
Fungi
Total	27.3	50.1	27.5	35.0 (13.1)	54.7	29.8	19.7	37.7 (18.0)
Respirable ^a	23.4	33.8	23.4	26.8 (6.0)	43.1	24.3	16.3	27.9 (13.7)
Bacteria
Total	1449	1233	1169	1284 (147)	496	155	127	259 (205)
Respirable ^a	1241	1009	965	1072 (148)	418	148	118	228 (165)
Notes: ^aLess than 4 μm, assuming that the bioaerosols collected in the size range between 3.3 and 4.7 μm are distributed equally.