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search.filters.applied.f.access: openAccess × Author: Schepanski, Kerstin × DDC: 570 × Type: Text × WGL Institute: TROPOS ×

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    Airborne bacterial emission fluxes from manure-fertilized agricultural soil
    (Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2020) Thiel, Nadine; Münch, Steffen; Behrens, Wiebke; Junker, Vera; Faust, Matthias; Biniasch, Oliver; Kabelitz, Tina; Siller, Paul; Boedeker, Christian; Schumann, Peter; Roesler, Uwe; Amon, Thomas; Schepanski, Kerstin; Funk, Roger; Nübel, Ulrich
    This is the first study to quantify the dependence on wind velocity of airborne bacterial emission fluxes from soil. It demonstrates that manure bacteria get aerosolized from fertilized soil more easily than soil bacteria, and it applies bacterial genomic sequencing for the first time to trace environmental faecal contamination back to its source in the chicken barn. We report quantitative, airborne emission fluxes of bacteria during and following the fertilization of agricultural soil with manure from broiler chickens. During the fertilization process, the concentration of airborne bacteria culturable on blood agar medium increased more than 600 000-fold, and 1 m3 of air carried 2.9 × 105 viable enterococci, i.e. indicators of faecal contamination which had been undetectable in background air samples. Trajectory modelling suggested that atmospheric residence times and dispersion pathways were dependent on the time of day at which fertilization was performed. Measurements in a wind tunnel indicated that airborne bacterial emission fluxes from freshly fertilized soil under local climatic conditions on average were 100-fold higher than a previous estimate of average emissions from land. Faecal bacteria collected from soil and dust up to seven weeks after fertilization could be traced to their origins in the poultry barn by genomic sequencing. Comparative analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences from manure, soil and dust showed that manure bacteria got aerosolized preferably, likely due to their attachment to low-density manure particles. Our data show that fertilization with manure may cause substantial increases of bacterial emissions from agricultural land. After mechanical incorporation of manure into soil, however, the associated risk of airborne infection is low.
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    Investigation of atmospheric conditions fostering the spreading of legionnaires’ disease in outbreaks related to cooling towers
    (Berlin ; Heidelberg : Springer, 2019) Villanueva, Diego; Schepanski, Kerstin
    Legionnaires’ disease (LD) is a severe lung infection caused by the bacteria Legionella pneumophila which is usually associated with water managing installations like cooling towers. Several outbreaks of LD have been linked to individual sources of bioaerosol in the past. However, the transmission pathways as well as the influence of meteorological factors in the spreading of such bioaerosols remain unclear. Using the meteorological data near 12 LD outbreaks in Europe for the period 2000–2016, the correlation between key meteorological factors and the occurrence of LD was assessed. Temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, precipitation, cloud cover and, for the first time, fog occurrence were included as potential risk factors. It was found that the occurrence of fog was related to four of the LD outbreaks, suggesting that the presence of fog droplets and/or the thermal inversions associated with fog may play a role in the disease spreading. This finding can contribute to outbreak investigations and to the prevention of future outbreaks. © 2019, The Author(s).
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    Agricultural fertilization with poultry manure results in persistent environmental contamination with the pathogen Clostridioides difficile
    (Oxford [u.a.] : Blackwell, 2021) Frentrup, Martinique; Thiel, Nadine; Junker, Vera; Behrens, Wiebke; Münch, Steffen; Siller, Paul; Kabelitz, Tina; Faust, Matthias; Indra, Alexander; Baumgartner, Stefanie; Schepanski, Kerstin; Amon, Thomas; Roesler, Uwe; Funk, Roger; Nübel, Ulrich
    During a field experiment applying broiler manure for fertilization of agricultural land, we detected viable Clostridioides (also known as Clostridium) difficile in broiler faeces, manure, dust and fertilized soil. A large diversity of toxigenic C. difficile isolates was recovered, including PCR ribotypes common from human disease. Genomic relatedness of C. difficile isolates from dust and from soil, recovered more than 2 years after fertilization, traced their origins to the specific chicken farm that had delivered the manure. We present evidence of long-term contamination of agricultural soil with manure-derived C. difficile and demonstrate the potential for airborne dispersal of C. difficile through dust emissions during manure application. Clostridioides genome sequences virtually identical to those from manure had been recovered from chicken meat and from human infections in previous studies, suggesting broiler-associated C. difficile are capable of zoonotic transmission.