Size-resolved culturable airborne bacteria sampled in rice field, sanitary landfill, and waste incineration sites

Abstract

Size-resolved bacterial concentrations in atmospheric aerosols sampled by using a six stage viable impactor at rice field, sanitary landfill, and waste incinerator sites were determined. Culture-based and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) methods were used to identify the airborne bacteria. The culturable bacteria concentration in total suspended particles (TSP) was found to be the highest (848 Colony Forming Unit (CFU)/m³) at the sanitary landfill sampling site, while the rice field sampling site has the lowest (125 CFU/m³). The closed landfill would be the main source of the observed bacteria concentration at the sanitary landfill. The rice field sampling site was fully covered by rice grain with wetted conditions before harvest and had no significant contribution to the airborne bacteria concentration. This might occur because the dry conditions favor suspension of soil particles and this area had limited personnel and vehicle flow. The respirable fraction calculated by particles less than 3.3 μm was highest (26%) at the sanitary landfill sampling site followed by waste incinerator (19%) and rice field (10%), which showed a lower level of respiratory fraction compared to previous literature values. We identified 58 species in 23 genera of culturable bacteria, and the Microbacterium, Staphylococcus, and Micrococcus were the most abundant genera at the sanitary landfill, waste incinerator, and rice field sites, respectively. An antibiotic resistant test for the above bacteria (Micrococcus sp., Microbacterium sp., and Staphylococcus sp.) showed that the Staphylococcus sp. had the strongest resistance to both antibiotics (25.0% resistance for 32 μg ml⁻¹ of Chloramphenicol and 62.5% resistance for 4 μg ml⁻¹ of Gentamicin).