Comparison of the abundance and diversity of bacteria in bioaersols collected in a university building before and during the COVID-19 pandemic with a Anderson impactor

Anderson impactors are widely used to monitor bioaerosols in built environments. This device collects bioaerosols by directing air streams to agar plates, which are then incubated to obtain colony forming units (CFUs) counts. Application of mineral oil to the collection plates can increase the efficiency of these devices, in terms of CFU numbers. In this study, we compared the abundance and diversity of bacteria collected on oiled and controlled plates in a university building in 2019 and 2020. This sampling period included collection dates before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.