Validation of respirometry as a short-term method to assess the efficacy of biocides

• Autor(a) principal: Simões, M.
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Pereira, Maria Olívia, Vieira, M. J.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/3375
• topic: Respiratory activity; Live/Dead BacLightTM; Culturability; Viability; Disinfection; Biocide; Live/Dead BacLight™; Science & Technology

This study shows that a short-term respirometric measurement based on the rate of oxygen uptake needed to oxidize glucose is a reliable and fast method to assess biocide efficacy against P. fluorescens cells. Respiratory activity using oxygen consumption rate, the determination of viable and nonviable cells using Live/Dead® BacLightTM kit and colony formation units (CFU), were compared as indicators of the biocidal efficacy of ortho-phthalaldehyde (OPA). The results showed tha determining the effect of OPA against P. fluorescens using the different methods leads to different conclusions. The minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) was 80 mg l-¹, 100 mg l-¹ and 65 mg l-¹ respectively, using respiratory activity, viability using BacLight counts and culturability. The plate count method was shown to underestimate the biocidal action of OPA, whilst data from respirometry and viability using Live/Dead BacLight kit correlated strongly and were not statistically different when yellow cells were considered nonviable. Respirometry therefore represents an expeditious, non-destructive and accurate method to determine the antimicrobial action of biocides against aerobic heterotrophic bacteria.