Abstract
Indirect transmission of influenza A virus (IAV) in swine is poorly understood and information is lacking on levels of environmental exposure encountered by swine and people during outbreaks of IAV in swine barns. We characterized viral load, viability and persistence of IAV in air and on surfaces during outbreaks in swine barns. IAV was detected in pigs, air and surfaces from five confirmed outbreaks with 48% (47/98) of oral fluid, 38% (32/84) of pen railing and 43% (35/82) of indoor air samples testing positive by IAV RT-PCR. IAV was isolated from air and oral fluids yielding a mixture of subtypes (H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2). Detection of IAV RNA from air was sustained during the outbreaks with maximum levels estimated between 7 and 11 days from reported onset. Our results indicate that during outbreaks of IAV in swine, aerosols and surfaces in barns contain significant levels of IAV potentially representing an exposure hazard to both swine and people.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | e0146616 |
| Journal | PloS one |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 12 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding was provided by the National Pork Board. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of My Yang, Andres Diaz and Macarena Cortez for technical assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2016 Neira et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
