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Design, construction and validation of a nose‐only inhalation exposure system to measure infectivity of filtered bioaerosols in mice
Author(s) -
Stone B.R.,
Heimbuch B.K.,
Wu C.Y.,
Wander J.D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.2012.05403.x
Subject(s) - indoor bioaerosol , bioaerosol , aerosol , particle (ecology) , inhalation , cascade impactor , inhalation exposure , infectivity , environmental science , scanning mobility particle sizer , particle size , chemistry , biology , immunology , particle size distribution , environmental chemistry , ecology , virus , organic chemistry , anatomy
Aims The aim of this project was to validate a method to deliver a reproducible, selected dose of infective bioaerosol through a respiratory protective technology to an animal that exhibits a proportional clinical response. Methods and Results The Controlled Aerosol Test System ( CATS ) was designed to generate and condition a viable infective aerosol, pass it through a treatment technology and thence to the breathing zone of a mouse constrained in a N ose‐ O nly I nhalation E xposure S ystem ( NOIES ). A scanning mobility particle sizer and impingers at sampling ports were used to show that viability is preserved and particle size distribution ( PSD ) is acceptably uniform throughout the open CATS , including the 12 ports of the NOIES , and that a particle filter used caused the expected attenuation of particle counts. Conclusions Controlled A erosol T est S ystem delivers uniformly to mice constrained in the NOIES a selectable dose of viral bioaerosol whose PSD and viable counts remain consistent for an hour. Significance and Impact of the Study This study's characterization of CATS provides a new test system in which a susceptible small‐animal model can be used as the detector in a quantitative method to evaluate the ability of respiratory protective technologies to attenuate the infectivity of an inspired pathogenic aerosol. This provides a major improvement over the use of viable bioaerosol collectors (e.g. impactors and impingers), which provide data that are difficult to relate to the attenuation of pathogenicity.