aeruginosa , and Staphylococcus aureus , were isolated from the air in the 

 wet laboratory of the habitat. There may have been a correlation be- 

 tween the finding of the Pseudomonas at eight organisms/f t^ and complaints 

 of external ear infection of three divers the following day. The etio- 

 logical agent in two of these ear infections was identified as 

 Pseudomonas . Three of the divers were nasal carriers of Staphylococcus 

 aureus , coagulase positive, at the start of the program. No incidences 

 of illness were associated with the airborne Staphylococcus and by the 

 end of the program the carrier state of the three divers had been lost 

 (Cobet & Hresko, 1970). 



The objective of the microbiology program in TEKTITE-II was to determine 

 if on other TEKTITES the same organism that became dominant in TEKTITE-I 

 would again become dominant or should one expect another dominant popu- 

 lation as a result of a different seeding (i.e., divers, water mass and 

 new atmosphere), even though the environment is nominally the same. If 

 the latter, there will always be a potential hazard in successive trials 

 with the emergence of unpredictable bacterial populations. The entire 

 microbiological program of TEKTITE-II is an extension of and is based on 

 the data acquired during the first program in this series. 



An extensive study was conducted with concentration on the types and fre- 

 quency of occurrence of microorganisms on three body sites of the 

 aquanauts and the air within the 50 ft TEKTITE-II habitat during the seven 

 month program. Continued sampling through the entire program allowed for 

 evaluation of the various experimental conditions in terms of their in- 

 fluence on the microflora. 



General Sampling Procedures . 



Aerobiology. The configuration of the habitat with its four compartments 

 and three separate air conditioning units results in essentially three 

 air masses, (1) the bridge-crew compartments; (2) the wet lab and, (3) 

 the engineering space. Data from the TEKTITE-I behavioral study showed 

 that the divers averaged about 65% of their time in air mass 1, 15% in 

 air mass 2 and 5% in air mass 3 (Mach & Radloff, 1970). Based on these 

 percentages of time spent in the various compartments, air samples were 

 collected in the crew quarters and wet lab. The samples were collected 

 in front of the air return ducts in the two compartments using Anderson 

 six stage air samplers (Andersen, 1958). 



The crew compartment was sampled daily using two samplers, one contained 

 half-strength Trypticase Soy Agar (TSA) to obtain the general background 

 bacterial population while the second sampler, on a rotational basis, 

 contained Mannitol Salts Agar (Difco) , Marine Agar 2216 (Difco) or 

 Pseudosel (BBL) for the isolation of Staphylococcus aureus , the marine 

 bacterial population and Pseudomonas aeruginosa respectively. 



The wet laboratory was sampled daily with one Anderson sampler. Every 

 other day the general background population was determined using TSA 

 while on the odd days the other three media were rotated as above. 



IX-37 



