MS2 bacteriophage infectivity after exposure to RH, ozone, chlorine dioxide and solar radiation using an oxidation flow reactor and a rotating drum

Abstract

Viruses and other pathogens that transmit as aerosols pose a significant risk to the public, due to the potential for widespread disease transmission. These viral diseases may be transmitted from person-to-person, such as SARS-CoV-2, or as environmentally generated aerosols, like hantaviruses. The threat a pathogen may pose as an aerosol depends on several factors, including its stability as an aerosol. Bioaerosol stability is generally studied as the decay of aerosol properties (e.g., viability, infectivity and/or detectability) in response to environmental conditions (e.g., sunlight and humidity). We have developed a novel system and approach to the study of bioaerosol stability. The Biological Aerosol Reaction Chamber (Bio-ARC) is a flow-through system designed to rapidly expose biological aerosols to environmental conditions (ozone, simulated solar radiation (SSR), humidity, and other gas phase species at stable temperatures) and determine the sensitivity of those particles to simulated ambient conditions. Using this system, we examined the stability of a well-understood model organism: bacteriophage MS2. This data was then compared to similar data of MS2 aerosols decayed within a Goldberg rotating drum. Based on these comparisons, it was found that Bio-ARC system can rapidly decay bioaerosols and witnessed decay in the first seconds to minute, which is typically impractical to measure in Goldberg rotating drums, that require time to inject with aerosols.