Abstracto

Environmental Organism Transfer

Tasha Sturm

There are numerous bacteria, yeast and molds living in the surrounding environment that can be transferred to other organisms via contact. Shoes and hands were either swabbed or pressed onto TSA agar plates and incubated at 37°C for 48 h, then room temperature for 72 h, and then plates kept at refrigerated temperature for up to a week. Different incubation temperatures allowed different species of bacteria, yeast, and mold to grow from one sample. Organisms normally found on the body would grow at 37°C while room temperature and refrigerated temperatures yielded environmental yeast and molds. As seen in the images below Bacillus spp., a common spore forming soil bacteria is the majority of growth seen throughout the samples and grew well at warm incubation temperatures while growth of the colorful yeast and molds took longer to grow and were less abundant. Everything seen in these images are naturally occurring environmental organism and are normally harmless.