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Microbial Properties Database Editor Tutorial
Citation:
Whelan, G., M. Pelton, M. Molina, R. Zepp, J. Ravenscroft, AND Y. Pachepsky. Microbial Properties Database Editor Tutorial. U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC, EPA/600/B-15/275, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
To help consolidate microbial-relevant data to populate a microbial database and support a database editor by which an authorized user can modify physico-microbial properties related to microbial indicators and pathogens. Physical properties describe the changes in state of the physical system and relate to properties such as mass of a microbe, excretion density of microbes in animal feces, prevalence, etc. Microbial properties relate to changes in or with the microbe, such as inactivation rate, attachment/detachment rates, dose-response coefficients, etc.
Description:
A Microbial Properties Database Editor (MPDBE) has been developed to help consolidate microbial-relevant data to populate a microbial database and support a database editor by which an authorized user can modify physico-microbial properties related to microbial indicators and pathogens. Physical properties describe changes in state of the physical system and relate to properties such as mass of a microbe, excretion density of microbes in animal feces, prevalence, etc. Microbial properties relate to changes in or with the microbe, such as inactivation rate, attachment/detachment rates, dose-response coefficients, etc. The objective of the MPDBE is to provide a tool by which an authorized user can modify physico-microbial properties related to microbial indicators and pathogens and populate metadata standards, so the properties are available for consumption by microbial source, fate, transport, and risk models. Although other databases are being developed on specific microbial properties, such as inactivation of microorganisms in environmental media, or explicitly include other valuable support information (e.g., methods of analysis, experimental set up, etc.), this database helps bridge the gap between modeling, monitoring, and methods by identifying parameters that are typically used by models engaged in Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessments (QMRAs). These parameters address modeling paradigms that include release mechanism from manure forms (e.g., solid pats, slurry, and dry litter); fate and transport through various environmental media (e.g., overland, groundwater, surface water); exposure; intake; and risk. Some parameters may be widely used (e.g., inactivation rates), while others may seem obscure but only because users may not be familiar with the specific models or the literature associated with them. As additional parameters are correlated to more models, these can be added to the database to ensure a smooth linkage between data collected in the field and at the bench-scale with models that consume the information. Once populated, the database can act as a reference to help parameterize models used in QMRAs. In addition, for models registered to integrated environmental modeling infrastructures, the database editor could be used to automatically populate model input requirements. The microbial database is to supply microbial properties to users. Included with the microbial database will be an editor that lets users update microbial and parameter values in the database. The parameters for evaluation of impacts due to pathogen exposure can be viewed, estimated, modified, printed, deleted, and exported.