A computer simulation study on bioaerosol colony counting error due to masking effect

摘要

The prevalence of bioaerosol particles has gained significant attention in the past decades and is considered to be a potential health hazard for people in a variety of environments. To identify and quantify airborne microorganisms, the bioaerosols are collected directly on semisolid culture media, or trapped from air into liquid substrates, followed by culturing, counting, and identification of the resulting colony forming units. Studies on error due to overcrowding of the colonies have concluded that the bias did not become significant until about 300 colonies/plate were present, but no study has taken the non-homogeneity of colony size into account.