Bioaerosols Play a Major Role in the Nasopharyngeal Microbiota Content in Agricultural Environment

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Hamza Mbareche¹  Valérie Létourneau¹  Marc Veillette¹  Jonathan Pilote¹  Caroline Duchaine¹ 

[1] Centre de Recherche de l’Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Québec, Québec, QC G1V 4G5, Canada;

关键词: bioaerosols;    air quality;    nasopharynx;    occupational exposure;    microbial diversity;    resistance genes;    high-throughput sequencing;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph16081375

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Bioaerosols are a major concern for public health and sampling for exposure assessment purposes is challenging. The nasopharyngeal region could be a potent carrier of long-term bioaerosol exposure agents. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between nasopharyngeal bacterial flora of swine workers and the swine barns bioaerosol biodiversity. Methods: Air samples from eight swine barns as well as nasopharyngeal swabs from pig workers (n = 25) and from a non-exposed control group (n = 29) were sequenced using 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing. Wastewater treatment plants were used as the industrial, low-dust, non-agricultural environment control to validate the microbial link between the bioaerosol content (air) and the nasopharynxes of workers. Results: A multivariate analysis showed air samples and nasopharyngeal flora of pig workers cluster together, compared to the non-exposed control group. The significance was confirmed with the PERMANOVA statistical test (p-value of 0.0001). Unlike the farm environment, nasopharynx samples from wastewater workers did not cluster with air samples from wastewater treatment plants. The difference in the microbial community of nasopharynx of swine workers and a control group suggest that swine workers are carriers of germs found in bioaerosols. Conclusion: Nasopharynx sampling and microbiota could be used as a proxy of air sampling for exposure assessment studies or for the determination of exposure markers in highly contaminated agricultural environments.

【 授权许可】

Unknown