Episode description

Today I’m going to be talking about the subject of Bio-Tape - otherwise known as Tape Lifts or Cellotape Lifts. These are very commonly used in water damage investigations for mould and I’m going to tell you how they’re used, some of their advantages, and some of their disadvantages.

Q: WHY ARE THEY USED?
A: If you see visible mould, how can you measure it?

•You could take a photograph, but that doesn’t tell you what fungi are present?
•You could take a surface press plate impression - but that’s a whole other topic called Viable Sampling
•You could take a spore trap - but that also doesn’t tell you about surfaces, only indirectly try since that measures the concentration of mould in the air.
•You could even take a swab sample - but again, you need complex microbiological media to streak the swab across and incubation facilities.

ENTER: The Tape Lift.

•These are a sticky microscope slides.

BENEFITS/PRO’S:

1. Quick to do and relatively inexpensive
2. Easy to test a range ion different surfaces
3. Test and send to lab - the lab does the hard work

CON’S:

1. Potential bias in sampling - you could cherry pick ALL mouldy areas or pick all non-mouldy areas are manipulate the conclusions drawn by the data
2. Species ID much harder when tape is ripped off the surface - causes damage to tiny cell structure. Like ripping off a bandaid.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. It should be used as a companion or complementary method e.g. use tape lifts and RODAC press plates in combination for contents testing.
2. If a number of samples are taken from a representative set of surfaces to answer a specific question, the method is reliable
3. Next time you have need for a mould assessment ask if tape lift testing is available ands is suitable for your situation?

REFERENCES:

Citation: Jones CL. Comment on fungal tape lift reporting frameworks. J Bacteriol Mycol Open Access. 2019;7(6):155‒157. DOI: 10.15406/jbmoa.2019.07.00262

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