Dale W. Griffin
Bridget M. Barker
Vladimir N. Loparev
Anastasia P. Litvintseva
Nancy A. Chow
2016
<p><span>Environmental surveillance of the soil-dwelling fungus </span><i>Coccidioides</i><span> is essential for the prevention of Valley fever, a disease primarily caused by inhalation of the arthroconidia. Methods for collecting and detecting</span><i>Coccidioides</i><span> in soil samples are currently in use by several laboratories; however, a method utilizing current air sampling technologies has not been formally demonstrated for the capture of airborne arthroconidia. In this study, we collected air/dust samples at two sites (Site A and Site B) in the endemic region of Tucson, Arizona, and tested a variety of air samplers and membrane matrices. We then employed a single-tube nested qPCR assay for molecular detection. At both sites, numerous soil samples (</span><i>n</i><span> = 10 at Site A and </span><i>n</i><span> = 24 at Site B) were collected and </span><i>Coccidioides</i><span> was detected in two samples (20%) at Site A and in eight samples (33%) at Site B. Of the 25 air/dust samples collected at both sites using five different air sampling methods, we detected </span><i>Coccidioides</i><span> in three samples from site B. All three samples were collected using a high-volume sampler with glass-fiber filters. In this report, we describe these methods and propose the use of these air sampling and molecular detection strategies for environmental surveillance of </span><i>Coccidioides</i><span>.</span></p>
application/pdf
10.1093/mmy/myw022
en
Oxford Journals
Molecular detection of airborne <i>Coccidioides</i> in Tucson, Arizona
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