<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Legionella pneumophila is an environmental pathogen of engineered water systems that can cause different forms of legionellosis - from mild fever to potentially lethal pneumonia. Low concentrations of legionellae in natural habitats can increase markedly in engineered hot water systems where water temperatures are below 55 °C. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the influence of sampling season, hot water temperature and sampling protocol on occurrence of L. pneumophila. A total of 120 hot water samples from 20 apartment buildings were collected in two sampling periods - winter 2014 (n = 60) and summer 2015 (n = 60). Significantly higher occurrence of L. pneumophila was observed in summer 2015. Significant differences in temperature for negative and positive samples were not observed, which can be explained by low water temperatures at the point of water consumption. Temperature above 55 °C was observed only once, for all other sampling events it ranged from 14 °C to 53 °C.</p></abstract>

Legionella pneumophila is an environmental pathogen of engineered water systems that can cause different forms of legionellosis - from mild fever to potentially lethal pneumonia. Low concentrations of legionellae in natural habitats can increase markedly in engineered hot water systems where water temperatures are below 55 °C. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the influence of sampling season, hot water temperature and sampling protocol on occurrence of L. pneumophila. A total of 120 hot water samples from 20 apartment buildings were collected in two sampling periods - winter 2014 (n = 60) and summer 2015 (n = 60). Significantly higher occurrence of L. pneumophila was observed in summer 2015. Significant differences in temperature for negative and positive samples were not observed, which can be explained by low water temperatures at the point of water consumption. Temperature above 55 °C was observed only once, for all other sampling events it ranged from 14 °C to 53 °C.

Influence of Sampling Season and Sampling Protocol on Detection of Legionella Pneumophila Contamination in Hot Water / Paraugu Ņemšanas Sezonalitātes Un Paraugu Ņemšanas Metodes Ietekme Uz Legionella Pneumophila Kontaminācijas Noteikšanu Karstajš Ūdenī

Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment “BIOR”, Lejupes iela 3, Rīga, LV-1076, LATVIA

Rīga Technical University, Ķīpsalas iela 6A, Rīga, LV-1048, LATVIA

Rīga Stradiņš University, Linezera iela 3, Rīga, LV-1006, LATVIA

Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Section B. Natural, Exact, and Applied Sciences.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Legionella pneumophila is an environmental pathogen of engineered water systems that can cause different forms of legionellosis - from mild fever to...

Influence of Sampling Season and Sampling Protocol on Detection of Legionella Pneumophila Contamination in Hot Water / Paraugu Ņemšanas Sezonalitātes Un Paraugu Ņemšanas Metodes Ietekme Uz Legionella Pneumophila Kontaminācijas Noteikšanu Karstajš Ūdenī

Published Online: Aug 04, 2016

Page range: 227 - 231

Received: Apr 04, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/prolas-2016-0036

Keywords
Legionella control, hot water, water temperature, sampling strategy

© by Daina Pūle

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Influence of Sampling Season and Sampling Protocol on Detection of Legionella Pneumophila Contamination in Hot Water / Paraugu Ņemšanas Sezonalitātes Un Paraugu Ņemšanas Metodes Ietekme Uz Legionella Pneumophila Kontaminācijas Noteikšanu Karstajš Ūdenī

Published Online: Aug 04, 2016

Page range: 227 - 231

Received: Apr 04, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/prolas-2016-0036

KeywordsLegionella control, hot water, water temperature, sampling strategy

© by Daina Pūle

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Legionella control, hot water, water temperature, sampling strategy