ASTM Int'l Pesticides Committee to Develop Biofilm Quantification Test Method - ASTM WK17813
April 3, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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ASTM International Committee E35 on Pesticides and Alternative Control Agents is working on ASTM WK17813 - Test Method for Quantification of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Grown with Low Shear and Continuous Flow Using a Drip Flow Biofilm Reactor.
The standard is being developed by Subcommittee E35.15 on Antimicrobial Agents.
According to Darla M. Goeres, senior research engineer, Center for Biofilm Engineering and E35 member, biofilm is defined as microorganisms living in a self-organized cooperative community.
These communities, which are embedded in slime and can be found on a variety of surfaces, can have positive and negative effects and are being investigated by industry, medical, professional and regulatory agencies.
Goeres said that the qualitative characteristics that define a particular biofilm such as architecture, population density, microbial ecology and chemical composition are controlled by the physiochemical properties of the environment where the biofilm exists.
"Intuitively, the biofilm found in a chronic wound infection is different from the biofilm found in drinking water distribution systems or the biofilm present in constructed wetlands," said Goeres. "Laboratory biofilms are engineered to exhibit a particular set of qualitative characteristics that best represent the environment under investigation."
The difference between biofilm grown with a drip flow reactor and those covered in previous biofilm standards ( ASTM E 2562 - Test Method for Quantification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Grown with High Shear and Continuous Flow Using CDC Biofilm Reactor; and ASTM E 2196 - Test Method for Quantification of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Grown with Shear and Continuous Flow Using a Rotating Disk Reactor) is that biofilm is grown under low fluid shear close to the air/liquid interface and that the drip flow reactor is a plug flow reactor system, which results in biofilm that is visible to the naked eye and smooth and slimy in appearance.
Biofilm generated in a drip flow reactor could represent those found in a wide spectrum of places including cooling towers, produce sprayers, on food processing conveyor belts, on catheters and in lungs with cystic fibrosis, said ASTM International.
Source: ASTM International.