Utility of Three Nebulizers in Investigating the Infectivity of Airborne Viruses.

Laboratory-generated bioaerosols are widely used in aerobiology studies of viruses; however, few comparisons of alternative nebulizers exist. We compared aerosol production and virus survival for a Collison nebulizer, vibrating mesh nebulizer (VMN), and hydraulic spray atomizer (HSA). We also measured the dry size distribution of the aerosols produced and calculated the droplet sizes before evaporation and the dry size distribution from normal saline solution. Dry count median diameters of 0.11, 0.22, and 0.30 μm were found for normal saline from the Collison nebulizer, VMN, and HSA, respectively. The volume median diameters were 0.323, 1.70, and 1.30 μm, respectively. The effect of nebulization on the viability of two influenza A viruses (IAVs) (H1N1 and H3N2) and human rhinovirus 16 (HRV-16) was assessed by nebulization into an SKC BioSampler. The HSA had the least impact on surviving fractions (SFs) of H1N1 and H3N2 (89% ± 3% and 94% ± 2%, respectively), followed by the Collison nebulizer (83% ± 1% and 82% ± 2%, respectively). The VMN yielded SFs of 78% ± 2% and 76% ± 2%, respectively. Conversely, for HRV-16, the VMN produced higher SFs (87% ± 8%). Our findings indicate that there were no statistical differences between SFs of the viruses nebulized by these nebulizers. However, VMN produced higher aerosol concentrations within the airborne size range, making it more suitable where high aerosol mass production is required.