Answer:
4. Sterilization
Explanation:
A reservoir refers to the breeding ground or natural habitat of micro living organisms such as bacterias, fungi, worms, etc. Thus, a reservoir hosts or harbours pathogens and usually serves as a source of infection to other living organisms.
On the other hand, a source of infection refers to a contaminated material from which a disease can be acquired by another living organism.
Pathogen refers to a disease causing organism or substance such as fungi, protozoa, bacteria, virus, etc.
Sterilization simply means to be free from all organisms either pathogenic or nonpathogenic organisms such as spores and viruses.
An autoclave can be defined as a chamber (container) designed to expose an equipment to steam i.e a moisture at high heat and pressure for a specific period of time.
Basically, an autoclave is a container or chamber that is strongly heated and as a result, it is typically used for the sterilization of various laboratory and medical equipments using steam under pressure and high temperature.
This ultimately implies that, an autoclave avails laboratory scientist and other end users the ability to disinfect or sterilize equipments by exposing them to moisture at high heat and pressure for a specific period of time.
