Bacterial plume emanating from the air surrounding swine confinement operations.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the levels of bacteria in the air plume immediately upwind at 25 m and downwind at locations 25 m, 50 m, 100 m, and 150 m from a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO). It was hypothesized that this would give insight into determining the maximal distance that bacterial organisms release from a CAFO could travel, which would be important in determining the optimal siting distance for future CAFO in relation to high population areas. The Andersen two-stage sampler was used to collect all of the bacterial samples from the animal confinement facilities. The data show a marked increase in bacterial CFUs/m3 inside the facility (18,132 CFU/m3 average) versus upwind (63 CFU/m3 average) anda steady down wind decrease out to approximately 150 m. Staphylococcus aureus was found to account for 76% of the organisms recovered. We conclude that the optimal placement of a swine CAFO would be at least 200 m from a residential area.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Christopher F
CF
Green
Shawn G
SG
Gibbs
Patrick M
PM
Tarwater
Linda C
LC
Mota
Pasquale V
PV
Scarpino
D000391:Air Microbiology; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000302:isolation & purification; D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006799:Housing, Animal; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013552:Swine; D014919:Wind
D000393:Air Pollutants; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational