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International audience; Despite scientific advances, bacterial spores remain a major preoccupation in many different fields, such as the hospital, food, and CBRN-E Defense sector. Although many disinfectant technologies exist, there is a lack for the decontamination of difficult to access areas, outdoor sites, or large interior volumes. This study evaluates the decontamination efficiency of an aqueous foam containing hydrogen peroxide, with the efficiency of disinfectant in the liquid form on vertical surfaces contaminated by Bacillus thurengiensis spores. The decontamination efficiency impact of the surfactant and stabilizer agents in the foam and liquid forms was evaluated. No interferences were observed with these two chemical additives. Our results indicate that the decontamination kinetics of both foam and liquid forms are similar. In addition, while the foam form was as efficient as the liquid solution at 4 degrees C, it was even more so at 30 degrees C. The foam decontamination reaction follows the Arrhenius law, which enables the decontamination kinetic to be predicted with the temperature. Moreover, the foam process used via spraying or filling is more attractive due to the generation of lower quantity of liquid effluents. Our findings highlight the greater suitability of foam to decontaminate difficult to access and high volume facilities compared to liquid solutions.

International audience; Rapid identification of health threatening bacteria and/or spores present in small concentration in sample fluids is of utmost importance. Efficient sample preparation and molecular detection aims to achieving this goal. Two processes must be conducted successively: the concentration of the targets in a small volume with simultaneous purification, followed by their lysis to provide accessible DNA templates. Conventional PCR is then used in situ to identify the targets. In this work we present an original approach combining an efficient concentration and purification of the bacteria and spores, a rapid and efficient grinding lysis step, working even for polluted samples, and the integration of the process in a semi-automated device. The method is very efficient and rapid: it can concentrate and detect less than 10 targets in 1 mL of sample, even if the sample is contaminated by some environmental contaminants. The most resistant spores are successfully lysed. In this study, we successively present the principle and performances of the method, and its integration on a in a semi-automated device. Perspectives to fully integrated system are discussed.