Exposure Levels of Airborne Fungi, Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Cotton Farms during Cotton Harvesting and Evaluations of N95 Respirators against These Bioaerosols
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Selection of the Cotton Farms
2.2. Collection of Air Samples during the Cotton Harvesting Season from the Farm Air and the Interior of the N95 Respirators and the Estimation of the Culturable Microbial Concentrations
2.3. Analysis of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Air Samples
2.3.1. Genomic DNA Extraction
2.3.2. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) of Antibiotic Resistance Genes
2.4. Evaluation of N95 Respirators against the Airborne Microorganisms
2.5. ATP Measurement of the Interior and Exterior Surfaces of the N95 Respirators
2.6. Statistical Analyses
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Concentrations of Airborne Culturable Fungi and Bacteria on the Cotton Farms during Harvesting
3.2. Presence of ARGs in the Collected Air Samples and the Relative Abundance of ARGs with Respect to 16S rRNA Gene Copies
3.3. Evaluation of the N95 Respirators against Airborne Culturable Fungi, Bacteria, and ARGs
3.4. Microbial Loads on the Interior and Exterior Surfaces of the Tested N95 Respirators
4. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Adhikari, A.; Banerjee, P.; Thornton, T.; Jones, D.H.; Adeoye, C.; Sherpa, S. Exposure Levels of Airborne Fungi, Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Cotton Farms during Cotton Harvesting and Evaluations of N95 Respirators against These Bioaerosols. Microorganisms 2023, 11, 1561. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11061561
Adhikari A, Banerjee P, Thornton T, Jones DH, Adeoye C, Sherpa S. Exposure Levels of Airborne Fungi, Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Cotton Farms during Cotton Harvesting and Evaluations of N95 Respirators against These Bioaerosols. Microorganisms. 2023; 11(6):1561. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11061561
Chicago/Turabian StyleAdhikari, Atin, Pratik Banerjee, Taylor Thornton, Daleniece Higgins Jones, Caleb Adeoye, and Sonam Sherpa. 2023. "Exposure Levels of Airborne Fungi, Bacteria, and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Cotton Farms during Cotton Harvesting and Evaluations of N95 Respirators against These Bioaerosols" Microorganisms 11, no. 6: 1561. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11061561