Another proposed connection between skin & transmission of nasty microbes: this time re: foot & mouth disease#microBEnet

A new paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B is a bit disconcerting.  The paper “Skin as a potential source of infectious foot and mouth disease aerosols” is by Michael Dillon from Lawrence Livermore Labs (I have added the reference to the microBEnet collections at Mendeley and CiteULike).  A bit more about the …

Yes, Virginia, your soap and dispenser are not actually clean #shocking #microBEnet

A new paper in Applied and Environmental Microbiology is not surprisingly getting a bunch of press “Bacterial Hand Contamination and Transfer after Use of Contaminated Bulk-Soap-Refillable Dispensers” by Zapka et al.  I note the article is freely available online. Some of the news stories about this include:   Bacteria-Laden Soap Not So Clean : Discovery …

Yes, studies of the microbiology of the built environment are even important in Antarctica

Fascinating what Google Scholar searches can find sometimes. Did a search for “indoor microbiology” and this came up Investigations of fungal diversity in wooden structures and soils at historic sites on the Antarctic Peninsula by Brett Arenz and Robert Blanchette.  In the paper the authors discuss culture based studies of fungi isolated from various buildings in …

Genomic standards for microbial ecology studies (including built environment)

There is a new #openaccess article in ISME of great importance to those studying the microbiology of the built environment: The ISME Journal – The genomic standards consortium: bringing standards to life for microbial ecology.  This article focuses mostly on those characterizing “marker genes” (i.e., genes of value in phylogenetic characterization of taxa) in some way. …

NIST press release on standards for spore recovery from indoor surfaces; note paper not #OpenAccess #microBEnet

A recent press release from NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) is of some interest:NIST Seeks Improved Recovery of Samples from Biohazard Events.  In the press release they discuss a new paper in (AEM) Applied and Environmental Microbiology from NIST: Parameters Affecting Spore Recovery from Wipes Used in Biological Surface Sampling. Alas, the paper …

#microBEnet journal club: review on microbes in dust & implications for health from 2007

Just discovered this paper by Dale Griffin from the USGS:Atmospheric Movement of Microorganisms in Clouds of Desert Dust and Implications for Human Health. Though it does not focus on the built environment it definitely is connected and worth a read.  It is freely available in PubMed Central.  Microbes that are found on dust and other particles …

A little known issue in indoor microbiology: degradation of paper & risks to paper heritage #microBEnet

Though much of the work on microbiology of the built environment focuses on health in some way, there are other reasons to be interested in “Who are the microbes in your neighborhood.”  One of them is discussed in this paper:  Trends in Microbiology : Scripta manent? Assessing microbial risk to paper heritage. Microbes in the …

Nice title: A glimpse under the rim — the composition of microbial biofilm communities in domestic toilets

OK, so the article is a few years old (and not open access) but it should win a prize for best/worst title in a recent paper on indoor microbiology:  A glimpse under the rim — the composition of microbial biofilm communities in domestic toilets – Egert – 2009 – Journal of Applied Microbiology I note …

Interesting meeting abstract: Dense Human Occupancy is a Source of Indoor Bacteria

Interesting abstract from Jordan Peccia and colleagues on “Dense Human Occupancy is a Source of Indoor Bacteria“.  The abstract is from the AAAR (American Association for Aerosol Research) meeting which will take place October 3-7 in Orlando, FL.  The meeting has a decent number of presentations about microbes …

High levels of Staphylococcus contamination in US meat & poultry #microBEnet

Many news sources are reporting on a new study regarding levels of Staphylococcus in meat: (e.g., see Bacteria seen in nearly half of U.S. meat – CNN.com,  Study Warns of Tainted Meat, and Almost half of meat in stores may have drug-resistant bacteria). The study, by Lance Price, Paul Keim, and colleagues from TGen reports that …