Effects of chlorine dioxide on bioaerosols in an animal hospital

An open access article entitled “Evaluation of disinfection efficiency in pet’s hospital by using chlorine dioxide” was recently published in Sustainable Environment Research. In this study, the authors investigated the efficacy of chlorine dioxide in reducing the concentration of bacteria and fungi in bioaerosols in an animal hospital. Chlorine dioxide is an effective disinfectant commonly …

Arthropod Diversity in Urban and Suburban Homes

A paper from Bertone et al studies indoor arthropod diversity in urban and suburban homes. They surveyed all the arthropods they could find in 50 homes in North Carolina, finding 24-128 distinct arthropod families per home! These critters were filtering in from the outdoor surroundings of the home, and most of them were benign to humans. They also found …

Invisible roommates (OK, not microbes, but nobody’s perfect)

This is just really really cool and even though it is not about microbes, since it is about the built environment I thought I would share it here: Meet your invisible roommates by Thom Patterson on CNN.Com. The article is about the work of Daniel Kariko at East Carolina University.  Kariko refers to the work as Suburban …

A must read on indoor microbiology: Sources of airborne microorganisms in the built environment 

2013-5-19MBPF Source: Sources of airborne microorganisms in the built environment | Microbiome | Full Text Really nice new review paper by Aaron Prissin and Linsey Marr. It covers research on sources of airborne microbes including Humans Pets Plants Plumbing HVACs Water damage Dust Outdoor air Really thorough with tons of references and discussion of the …

Near perfect balance in a microbiome paper – hopeful yet no hype: The microbiome of the built environment and mental health

Source: The microbiome of the built environment and mental health | Microbiome | Full Text Andrew J. Hoisington, Lisa A. Brenner, Kerry A. Kinney, Teodor T. Postolache and Christopher A. Lowry When I saw the title of this I cringed a bit, worried that this paper would be overselling what we know about the microbiome and …

Interesting possible model for microbiomes and space travel: bees

Just got done looking at this paper which I found by searching Google Scholar for “indoor bacteria”.  PLOS ONE: 16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing Demonstrates that Indoor-Reared Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) Harbor a Core Subset of Bacteria Normally Associated with the Wild Host A MiSeq multiplexed 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of the gut microbiota of wild and indoor-reared …

Early exposure to animals reduces risk of developing childhood asthma

More good news for animal lovers! A recent study on the effects of exposure to dogs and farm animals on childhood asthma was just published in JAMA Pediatrics. The article is entitled Early Exposure to Dogs and Farm Animals and the Risk of Childhood Asthma by T. Fall, C. Lundholm, A.K. Örtqvist, K. Fall, F. Fang, Ã…. Hedhammar, O. Kämpe, E. Ingelsson, C. Almqvist.  Here is the …