Comparative evaluation of three impactor samplers for measuring airborne bacteria and fungi concentrations

Portable microbial samplers are useful for detecting microorganisms in the air. However, limited data are available on their performance when sampling airborne biological agents in a routine practice. We compared bacterial and fungal concentrations obtained in field conditions using three impactor samplers with different designs (AES Chemunex Sampl'Air, bioMérieux Air Ideal, and Sartorius AirPort MD8/BACTair). The linearity of mold collection was tested in the range of 100 L to 1000 L, and all the devices had a correlation coefficient higher than 0.95. For optimal comparison of the samplers, we performed experiments in different hospital rooms with varying levels of air biocontamination. Each sampling procedure was repeated to assess reproducibility. No significant difference between the samplers was observed for the mold concentrations on Sabouraud agar, whereas Sampl'Air collected significantly more bacteria on tryptic soy agar than Air Ideal or BACTair at one of the sites. Impactor location in the room was nevertheless associated with the variability observed with the three samplers at the highest microbial concentration levels. On the basis of their performance, autonomy and simplicity of use, these three impactors are suitable for routine indoor evaluation of microbial air contamination.