Use of Service Vehicles to Sample and Determine Extent of Contamination During a Response to Biological Incidents
Citation:
Hofacre, K., R. James, W. Calfee, S. Shah, P. Lemieux, AND L. Mickelsen. Use of Service Vehicles to Sample and Determine Extent of Contamination During a Response to Biological Incidents. 2021 EPA International Decontamination Research and Development Conference, RTP, NC, November 01 - 05, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
This is a poster to be presented at the 2021 EPA International Decontamination R&D Conference. This poster focuses on the assessment of the feasibility to use engine air filters from a municipalities service vehicle fleet (e.g., garbage trucks, police cruisers, city buses) to characterize the extent of spread of a biological organism released via aerial spraying. The study reported here leveraged the aerial spraying of a biopesticide containing Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk) for gypsy moth control and enlisted the use of city service vehicles to obtain engine air filters operated in vehicles that drove into or in the vicinity of the spray block before, immediately after, or months after the aerial spray event. The findings can be used to better plan and execute the recovery of a city and its surrounding area following a biological contamination incident.
Description:
The management of response and recovery operations from a biological contamination incident is complicated by the fact that contamination may spread following the incident and subsequent initial extent-of-contamination characterization efforts due to impacts of wind, precipitation, vehicle and personnel movement. The gypsy moth is an invasive insect with larvae that feed on the foliage of many North American trees and plants, having the potential to cause much damage to vegetation. Many communities in the Northern U.S. have programs that spray pesticides for gypsy moths to control their population and by extension, limit the damage they cause. Frequently, Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki (Btk) is used as the pesticide for these programs. Btk is also an effective non-pathogenic surrogate for Bacillus anthracis (Ba), the anthrax-causing bacteria that mimics many of the aerosol formation and transport phenomena associated with a Ba incident. In the case of a biological contamination incident, outside the contaminated zone, municipalities will be attempting to conduct business as usual for the residents in that area. Services including mail delivery, trash removal, and buses utilize fleets of vehicles that have relatively static routes that they follow on a day-to-day basis. For the purposes of this study, a scheduled aerial spraying of Btk for gypsy moth control provided an opportunity to assess the feasibility of using engine air filters from these service vehicles that may be driving near the aerial spray area after the spray event to identify the presence of Btk. Subsequent recovery and analysis of the vehicle filters, if positive for Btk, would suggest that the contamination might have moved outside the initially contaminated area, and this information could be used to inform additional characterization sampling activities to track the spread of the contaminated area over time.