Abstract
Inspired by the effects of solar or UV radiation on the decay of airborne bacteria during their transport, this study investigated the effect of UVA on the decay of airborne bacteria from cattle houses and analyzed the potential use of UVA to reduce indoor airborne bacteria under laboratory conditions. Airborne bacteria from the cattle source were generated and released into a small-scale test chamber (1.5 m(3)) with different strategies according to the different objectives in decay tests and simulated sterilization tests. Increasing with the UVA radiation gradients (0, 500, 1000, 1500 μW cm(-2)), the average decay rate of total curable airborne bacteria ranged from 2.7% to 61.6% in decay tests. Under the combination of different UVA radiation intensities (2000 μW cm(-2) in maximum) and radiation durations (60 min in maximum), simulated sterilization tests were conducted to examine the potential use of UVA radiation for air sterilization in animal houses. With the dynamic inactive rate (DIR) ranging from 17.2% to 62.4%, we proved that UVA may be an alternative way to reduce the indoor airborne bacteria in cattle houses if applied properly. Similar effects would be achieved using either a high radiation intensity with a short radiation duration or a low radiation intensity with a long radiation duration.