Effect of ovalbumin and anti-foam B on the survivability of spore forming bacteria collected in a Wetted Wall Cyclone

The effect of different collection fluids in maintaining the survivability, defined as the culturability in the archived sample divided by the culturability in the as-collected sample, were experimentally determined for Bacillus globigii (BG). The spores were collected using a 100 L/min Wetted Wall Cyclone (WWC) and archived for five days at 25C and 4C. Aqueous solutions of 0.01% Tween20 and 30% Ethylene glycol (EG), with or without 0.5% ovalbumin (OA), were used as collection fluids with 0.2% Antifoam B (A-F). The spores were more stable in EG and at 4C, very likely due to the surfactant effect of the Tween20, which would remove the spore coat and initiate germination. Adding OA significantly increased the survivability, especially at RT while adding AF increased the survivability of BG in EG. The best collection fluid that can maintain the survivability of BG, during an archiving period of five days is EG + AF.

Effect of ovalbumin and anti-foam B on the survivability of spore forming bacteria collected in a Wetted Wall Cyclone Conference Paper