Researchers from Alberta's Suffield military base are celebrating a major breakthrough in the struggle to crack the SARS virus -- they have become the first ever to snag fragments of the deadly disease from the air.

While the findings don't resolve the question of whether severe acute respiratory syndrome can be spread through airborne infection, experts say they do show the virus can be in the air.

Defence Department scientist Bill Kournikakis' team went to Toronto last month and used specially-designed equipment to take air samples from three SARS-infected hospital rooms.

"They were able to positively confirm that the nucleic acid from the SARS virus is present in two of the ten samples that we collected in one patient's room," Kournikakis told CTV affiliate CFCN News.

For months researchers have been debating whether SARS is airborne or transmitted through droplets when infected patients sneeze.

The SARS fragments discovered in the air were dead under the microscope so it's not known whether they were alive when first collected.

"It suggests airborne, but there are other examples of other viral infections that aren't transmitted by the airborne route where you can detect some of the DNA," said Dr. Donald Low, chief microbiologist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.

The discovery of even fragments of SARS in the air could help other researching the disease work out how it spreads and affects the environment where it's present.

With a report from CTV affiliate CFCN News and Canadian Press