FAQ

AeroCollect® is a hand held device enabling herd diagnostics of a broad panel of diseases.

The sampling technology is based on an electrostatic capture of the pathogen by a high electrostatic field generat-ed inside the disposable sample chambers. During operation air is sucked through the sample chamber in which the pathogens and other microbiological particles in the air are subjected to a high strength electrostatic field. The forces from this field is responsible for the capture and retention of the particles inside the sample chamber during the collection process.

After correct insertion of the sample chamber in the top of the AeroCollect device the sampling procedure is initi-ated by pressing the green ON button. Immediately the high voltage potential will ramp up in which process the red LED will be lid. When the electrostatic field has been established (less than a second) within the sample chamber the pump will begin running and the sampling procedure has started indicated by the green LED turning on.

When the AeroCollect® is running, a buzzing sound will origin from the pump inside the device. The sound can be difficult to hear when inside the farms, but the indication of the green light shows that the device is running per-fectly. Sampling is stopped by pressing the ‘OFF’ button, and both the pump and the green LED will turn off. Now the chamber can be removed by lifting the tip of the sample chamber while pulling it out.

AeroCollect® can be used in animal farms where there are alive animals. Note that the AeroCollect is designed to specifically detect pathogens actively being excreted by animals in large herds or flocks. Therefore, the air samples should be collected within the animal houses to ensure a correct sensitivity.

Yes, at this point it is only validated for use in veterinary settings.

The device is easy to use and doesn’t require any special training. The samples can be collected by the farmer or farm worker, making sampling convenient. Here you can find a short instruction video on how to collect samples with the AeroCollect®.

The AeroCollect® is powered by two AA batteries. The battery life of the instrument depends on the quality of the batteries. Regardless of the quality it is expected that it is possible to collect more than 30 samples on two AA batteries.

No, when you receive the AeorCollect® it is ready for operation.

The AeroCollect® device is design in a way where the sample will be introduced into the chamber, before entering the instrument. This means that all air coming into the device has been subjected to high voltage through the chamber We always recommend that the AeroCollect® remain in the house or section to where its introduced.

The device is designed to be disinfected with both ethanol and Virkon S. During disinfection it is important that the instrument is never submerged in liquid which will damage the electronics and that the instruction in the user man-ual are followed closely.

The AeroCollect® instrument is designed so that it will only start the sample collection procedure if two requirements are fulfilled.

  • There should remain enough energy in the batteries so that the 400 V potential can be upheld.
    To see if this is the issue, change the batteries.
  • The sample chamber is inserted correctly.
    To see if this is the issue ensure that the sample chamber is inserted correctly; try to reinsert it.

Should the two actions above not solve the issue the AeroCollect® device should be submitted for service.

The sample chamber holder has been designed in such a way that the sample chambers cannot be pulled from the AeroCollect® during operation. To release the sample chamber, lift the front of the chamber while pulling it out to release the sample chamber.

If operated for more than 2 hours in very dusty environments, the sample chambers may get blocked eventually and hence no more material is collected from this point. The sample chambers may still be analysed for the presence of pathogens though. To check if the sample chamber inserted in the AeroCollect® instrument is blocked try and block the inlet hole of the sample chamber while the pump is running. If the sample chamber is blocked the sound of the pump should not change. If the sample chamber is not blocked either the sound of the pump should change, or it should stop completely.

If you are having issues with the AeroCollect® please send it back to us for repair. If unauthorized personnel tinkers with the machine the warranty can no longer be offered. During sampling a high electrical potential is generated with-in the device. If the device is opened you may risk high electrical shocks.

Sample Collection

It depends on the industry and the size of the houses/facilities.

In the poultry industry the samples should be collected for a minimum of 5 minutes. The exact time depends on the size of the house. To ensure as reliable results as possible it is important to cover the entire floor plan of the house while collecting the sample. In larger houses this process will take longer than 5 minutes.

In pig facilities the samples should be collected for a minimum of 15 minutes, and again the larger the facility the longer time is recommended.

In all validation procedures samples have been collected for exactly 5 and 15 minutes in the poultry and swine industry respectively. Therefore, this is recommended as the minimum sampling time.

It is possible to pause the sampling during the testing and continue later. Just press the off button and leave the sample chamber in the device. The sampling is resumed by pressing the on button.

To ensure the best results it is important that the air samples are collected as close to the animals as possible. Therefore, it is recommended to collect the samples while walking around in the entire house.

No, that will not produce reliable results.

No, the AeroCollect® are designed to detect pathogens actively being excreted by the animals and therefore will not be able to detect any leftover contamination in an empty house. The AeroCollect® system relies on the presence of animals at the testing location. This also means that a negative sample in an empty house cannot be used to validate the cleaning of the house.

The AeroCollect® is designed to only detect a pathogen if it is actively being excreted by the birds and therefore is present in the house at elevated concentrations and hence most likely pose a problem to the birds. In this way false positive signals due to minor contamination or omnipresent pathogens are avoided and positive results can be acted upon.

It depends on the industry. In poultry flocks the only requirement is that the sample is collected from inside the poultry house. Covering the floor plan of the house is more important than the height at which the AeroCollect® is held. In the swine industry the samples are collected from the central walkway, and it is recommended to allow the pigs to breathe into the sample chamber.

The AeroCollect® method can detect a range of pathogens. Pathogens in the list marked with * means validated against ISO 16140-02:2016 and Accredited by DANAK – The Danish Accreditation Fund / ILAC in accordance with ISO 17025:2017.

See the full list of diseases here.

No, more applications are constantly under further development and new pathogens are continuously being added to the list. If you are interested in detecting pathogens bot currently on the list above please contact us to discuss the potential application.

Shipment

The collected air samples are not considered as biological samples and can easily be shipped across borders under ambient conditions. The sample chambers are specifically designed to ensure minimal degradation of the biological material during transport and storage.

Analyze and result

The laboratories of AeroCollect® are situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. The air samples are designed to be ana-lysed by qPCR without any requirement for special instruments. Any laboratory capable of running qPCR analysis can handle the air samples. To setup the air sample analysis in a chosen laboratory, please contact AeroCollect A/S for further assistance.

Because the AeroCollect samples does not require any sample preparation steps the PCR analysis can be initiated as soon as the laboratory receives the samples. Results are typically available the same day as the samples are received.

The AeroCollect® method is validated according to EN ISO 16140-02:2016 against the current golden for selected pathogens. The validation is only accepted if the method passes the acceptance criteria set forth in the validation procedure. For each pathogen there is an application note showing the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy.

Yes, indeed one of the advantages with the AeroCollect® methods is that it is possible to perform direct sequence analysis on the collected samples to determine the viral or bacterial strain in the samples collected from the air.

If the flock is vaccinated using a live (attenuated) vaccine the air samples is an excellent way to verify a successful vaccination procedure as a live vaccine is detectable in the air samples and the presence in the air samples will demonstrate that the vaccine was administered correctly and therefore being excreted by the animals.

Differentiating between a vaccine strain and a wild strain of the same type, may in some cases be difficult from a sequence analysis of a normal PCR product.

Instead, a way to investigate if the vaccination procedure is working is to collect samples from early in the rotation. For chickens receiving the vaccine at the hatchery it is normally possible to see the vaccine virus in the air already on the 1st week and younger chickens. A wild type strain being passed from flock to flock or brought into the flock from other sources, is not expected to be present in the air at such a young age. Furthermore, if multiple samples are collected one can use the shape of the curve of the virus concentration in the air samples as a function of chicken age to distinguish a vaccine response (in which all chickens will receive the vaccine at the same time at the hatchery) from that of a wild infection, where the infection is more gradual and spreads through the flock over time. In a vaccination a more logarithmic curve shape is expected, whereas a more exponential curve shape is expected from wild type infections.

In short: Analysis of samples from the early phases of the rotation can be used to investigate if the vaccination process has been successful, this can further be confirmed by analysing multiple air samples collected through the rotation and monitor the evalution of the viral presence in the air samples over time.

Ct values from the air samples might be higher when comparing to tissue samples, therefore we recommend to run the thermocycling for 50 cycles regardless of the assay being used. Note, that due to the nature of the samples there is only limited host DNA in the samples enabling sequence analysis of samples with relatively high Ct values.

In principle, yes if the sensitivity of the assays is good, but you will experience higher Ct values of the air samples compared to that of traditional samples. It is recommended to use 5µl template for a total reaction volume of 20µl and run 50 cycles.

All validated pathogens have been compared to traditional diagnostics and the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy can be found in each specific application note. The application notes can be found here.

The volume can be adjusted according to specific needs. The recommendation is to use 5 µL template in a total volume of 20µL for PCR setup, from an elution volume of 25µL. The samples are eluted with PCR grade water.

Yes. The Ct values of the air samples might be higher than that of traditional samples and hence there is a smaller amount of the genomic material. But the absence of host DNA from the samples enables a high sensitivity and high-quality sequences from samples with even high Ct values.