Influence of Sampling Season and Sampling Protocol on Detection of Legionella Pneumophila Contamination in Hot Water / Paraugu Ņemšanas Sezonalitātes Un Paraugu Ņemšanas Metodes Ietekme Uz Legionella Pneumophila Kontaminācijas Noteikšanu Karstajš Ūdenī

Legionella pneumophila is an environmental pathogen of engineered water systems that can cause different forms of legionellosis - from mild fever to potentially lethal pneumonia. Low concentrations of legionellae in natural habitats can increase markedly in engineered hot water systems where water temperatures are below 55 °C. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the influence of sampling season, hot water temperature and sampling protocol on occurrence of L. pneumophila. A total of 120 hot water samples from 20 apartment buildings were collected in two sampling periods - winter 2014 (n = 60) and summer 2015 (n = 60). Significantly higher occurrence of L. pneumophila was observed in summer 2015. Significant differences in temperature for negative and positive samples were not observed, which can be explained by low water temperatures at the point of water consumption. Temperature above 55 °C was observed only once, for all other sampling events it ranged from 14 °C to 53 °C.