ARS Engineer Develops Portable Air Sampler

October 14, 2005 — 

Bailey Mitchell, an agricultural engineer at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Laboratory in Athens, GA, has developed a portable inexpensive device to conduct high-efficiency sampling for airborne bacteria, viruses and spores. The two pound device has been used in poultry houses to detect microorganisms too small to be recovered using traditional methods, such as swab or serum sampling.

The device uses an electrostatic charge to attract airborne particles onto an agar dish. It can sample approximately 212 cubic feet of air an hour using two 9-volt batteries. It has been shown to perform at up to a 20-fold improvement over standard sampling techniques. Using only $50 worth of parts, the unit will sell for only a fraction of the price of similar devices in use today.

Source: USDA, ARS http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct05/air1005.htm