We optimised methods for recovery of genetic material from bacterial bioaerosols with a number of samplers. Polycarbonate filters and PBS were the best performing filter and impingement liquids respectively. The sampling time (2hrs) was too short to recover DNA with the Andersen sampler at urban and agricultural sights but data from the compost sight provided proof of concept for the sampling strategy. Syringe filters did not perform as well as our lab based protocol but show promise as a rapid and cheap method for DNA recovery on sight, in subsequent work we will trial this with portable qPCR for on sight pathogen detection.