Bacterial transmission

Bacterial transmission is a common pathway of bacterial contamination of surfaces in diverse environments. Unfortunately, the mechanism of bacterial transmission is poorly understood and very different from bacterial adhesion since two surfaces are involved, a donor surface and a receiver one. Bacteria prefer to grow in what is generally called a biofilm, which is a survival mechanism and protect the bacteria against the environment. The biofilm mode of growth makes bacterial transmission more complex than transmission from a monolayer of bacteria, since not only adhesion forces to the donor and receiver surface play a role but also the interaction forces between bacteria and the matrix in the biofilm. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to study the effect of various environmental and intrinsic factors on bacterial transmission from a donor surface covered with a multilayered bacterial biofilm. Knowledge of these factors, will hopefully give some insight in how to prevent bacterial transmission and how to prevent cross-contamination between surfaces.