Bacterial community in commercial airliner cabins in China

ABSTRACT

Considering the amount of time that crew members and passengers spend on airliners and the potential health impact of pathogenic bacteria, it is important to understand the population of bacteria inside airliners and the factors affecting the bacterial concentration. This study recorded the species of airborne and cabin surface culturable bacteria inside various airliner. Seven flights ranging from 3 to 5 hours in duration on different types of airliner were chosen. Multiple species of bacteria in the air of the airliners, such as Brachybacterium paraconglomeratum, were identified by means of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing method, and most of the bacteria were Gram-positive. This study found that the bacterial concentration in the airliners decreases as the relative humidity increases. The decrease in the number of airborne bacteria may be the reason for the reduced occurrence of unwanted symptoms exhibited by passengers.

KEYWORDS:

• Public health
• airliner cabin
• bacteria
• 16S ribosomal RNA identification
• relative humidity

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (COMAC) and National Basic Research Program of China (the 973 Program) through grant no. 2012CB720100. The authors would like to thank Hanyu Li, Xilei Dai, Congcong Wang, Jiayu Li, Lizhi Jia, Xin Zhang, Xiang Song and Yi Zhao for their help.

Additional information

Funding

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd (COMAC); National Basic Research Program of China (the 973 Program), Grant No. 2012CB720100.