Isolation and identification of Legionella pneumophila from material reclamation facilities

S Ali, Carol A Phillips, Paul S Phillips, Margaret P Bates

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Sampling points at a material reclamation facility (MRF) were monitored over three months for the presence of Legionella spp. A number of different Legionellae were isolated and typed to identify L. pneumophila serogroup 1, the serotype which is the most common human pathogen. Phenotypic methods resulted in a total of 61 presumptive isolates of Legionella spp. Using latex agglutination, 26 out of the 61 were identified as L. pneumophila serogroup 1, 23 as L. pneumophila serogroups 2–14, and the remaining 12 were Legionella spp. However, on typing using pulse field gel electrophoresis, the 26 L. pneumophila serotype 1 isolates were a diverse group of 25 PFGE types with none persisting in the environment over time. This diversity suggests that there are a number of contamination sources for this important human pathogen in the MRF environment which constitute a risk to health for operatives in these facilities
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)367-377
Number of pages11
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Health Research
Volume20
Issue number5
Early online date17 Sept 2010
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2010

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