Design and Validation with Influenza A Virus of an Aerosol Transmission Chamber for Ferrets

Turgeon, Nathalie; Hamelin, Marie-Ève; Verreault, Daniel; Lévesque, Ariane; Rhéaume, Chantal; Carbonneau, Julie; Checkmahomed, Liva; Girard, Matthieu; Boivin, Guy; Duchaine, Caroline

Polydispersed aerosols were produced from Arizona road dust (ISO 12013-1, A2 fine, PTI Powder Technology Inc., Arden Hills, MN, USA) with a powder generator (fluidized bed 3400A, TSI Inc. Shoreview, MN, USA) placed inside cage number one. The powder generator was operated at 25 psi, with a bed purge of 2 L/min, a bed flow of 9 L/min and a chain rotation speed of 40. For each experiment, the aerosol generator was run for 2 h to stabilize the aerosol distribution inside the chamber. A stabilization period of 30 min was also allowed every time the flow rate of the chamber was modified. The aerodynamic distribution of the aerosol was measured with an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) (model 3321, TSI Inc. Shoreview, MN, USA) equipped with a diluter (model 3302A, TSI Inc. Shoreview, MN, USA) using a dilution factor of 1/20. The APS and diluter were placed under cage number three and connected to a sampling port located at the bottom of the cage at 2" from the particle separator.