Citation:

Gallardo, Vincente, B. Morris, AND E. Rhodes. The Use of Hollow Fiber Dialysis Filters Operated in Axial Flow Mode for Recovery of Microorganisms in Large Volume Water Samples with High Loadings of Particulate Matter. The Journal of Microbiology . Springer, New York, NY, , ., (2019).

Impact/Purpose:

In the aftermath of the terrorist events of 2001, the U.S. government initiated a multi-faceted effort to strengthen homeland security. One facet of this effort addressed vulnerabilities in the nation's drinking water systems to intentional contamination of a biological, chemical or radiological nature. In turn this led to research, development and testing of methods to improve detection of highly pathogenic microorganisms in water samples. In this exercise an aerosol made up of Bacillus atrophaeus subspecies globigii spores (B. globigii), a surrogate for B. anthracis, was released to evaluate decontamination procedures for buildings and other wide areas.

Description:

The objective of this study was to evaluate axial flow hollow fiber ultrafiltration (HFUF) in the recovery of target organisms in large volumes of turbid water that would be similar to water encountered in the cleanup of a biologically contaminated area such as the B. anthracis cleanups. This paper describes a novel concentration method for concentrating microorganisms in large volumes of highly turbid water. It is not as subject to clogging as other methods. The method has shown to have a very high capacity for wash water containing high levels particulate matter. The method has potential for enabling the analysis of low levels of biothreat agents in wash water generated from the cleanup of a site containing such agents. In addition the method shows promise for investigating irrigation water and vegetable wash water as sources for food borne outbreaks.

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