Influence of Sampling Season and Sampling Protocol on Detection of Legionella Pneumophila Contamination in Hot Water
Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Section B: Natural, Exact, and Applied Sciences 2016
Daina Pūle, Olga Valciņa, Aivars Bērziņš, Ludmila Vīksna, Angelika Krūmiņa

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.


Keywords
Legionella control, hot water, water temperature, sampling strategy
DOI
10.1515/prolas-2016-0036
Hyperlink
https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/prolas.2016.70.issue-4/prolas-2016-0036/prolas-2016-0036.pdf

Pūle, D., Valciņa, O., Bērziņš, A., Vīksna, L., Krūmiņa, A. Influence of Sampling Season and Sampling Protocol on Detection of Legionella Pneumophila Contamination in Hot Water. In: Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Section B: Natural, Exact, and Applied Sciences, Latvia, Rīga, 1-1 December, 2016. Rīga: 2016, pp.227-231. ISSN 1407-009X. Available from: doi:10.1515/prolas-2016-0036

Publication language
English (en)
The Scientific Library of the Riga Technical University.
E-mail: uzzinas@rtu.lv; Phone: +371 28399196