Water-soluble swab material for environmental sampling

Biological threats represent a growing vulnerability to national security, affecting both military and civilian populations. Deliberate dissemination of chemical and biological (CB) agents can have immediate and significant impacts on public health and the economy, highlighting the need for faster and more efficient techniques to assess contamination and safely clear affected areas for public reentry following an accidental or intentional biological release. Current surface sampling procedures set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) call for sampling swab materials that are not soluble in aqueous bacterial growth medium. These have been shown here to be inefficient, releasing less than 40% of the captured biological material into aqueous solution for detection. Since the CDC put these procedures in place, there has been no impetus for industry to develop sampling swabs that release 100% of the sample they capture from a non-porous surface. This project developed cost-effective, novel, biologically hospitable, adsorbent materials that dissolve in water, releasing 100% of the captured sample. These fibers maintain structural integrity during sampling, can be premoistened without premature dissolution, and rapidly dissolve in solution, facilitating efficient sample release. Forcespun PVA fibrous swabs demonstrated significantly higher spore capture and release efficiency compared to traditional materials, without inhibiting bacterial growth or spore germination. These swabs could significantly improve current sampling technologies and procedures via increased spore detection and analysis efficiency. Higher sampling efficiency could translate to fewer samples required for analysis and significantly less time to render an area safe for public reentry. Increased sampling efficiency would also provide faster impact data to decision makers and lead to improved consequence management. Prior to this study, water-soluble swabs suitable for this purpose have not yet been developed.IMPORTANCEAccurate environmental sampling is critical for detecting low-level microbial contamination in both public health and biodefense settings. Our water-soluble PVA swab material achieves up to 100% spore release from non-porous surfaces, more than double the recovery of traditional swabs, while being compatible with scalable, low-cost fabrication methods. This new tool will enable more sensitive, faster, and more reliable surface monitoring across a wide range of environmental and diagnostic applications.