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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Livestock Issues Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #223617

Title: Aeromicrobiology

Author
item PEPPER, IAN - UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
item Dowd, Scot

Submitted to: Environmental Microbiology
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/15/2008
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: In the 1930s, F.C. Meier coined the term aerobiology to describe a project that involved the study of life in the air (Boehm and Leuschner, 1986). Since then, aerobiology has been defined by many as the study of the aerosolization, aerial transmission, and deposition of biological materials. Others have defined it more specifically as the study of diseases that may be transmitted via the respiratory route (Dimmic and Akers, 1969). Despite the variations in definition, this relatively new science is becoming increasingly important in many aspects of such diverse scientific fields as public health, environmental science, industrial and agricultural engineering, biological warfare, and space exploration. This chapter introduces the basics of aerobiology, including the nature of aerosols, the fundamentals of the aeromicrobiological (AMB) pathway, and aerobiological transport modeling. The remainder of the chapter focuses on a subset of the science that we shall term aeromicrobiology. Aeromicrobiology, as defined for the purpose of this text, involves various aspects of intramural (indoor) and extramural (outdoor) aerobiology as they relate to the airborne transmission of environmentally relevant microorganisms, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and protozoans.