Inhalation, persistence and dispersal of foot-and-mouth disease virus by man

Abstract

SUMMARY Sampling of human subjects, who had been in contact with animals infected with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus, showed that virus could be recovered from the nose, throat, saliva and from air expelled during coughing, sneezing, talking and breathing. The amounts of virus recovered paralleled those collected with a large-volume sampler and multistage impinger and these findings confirmed that the highest recovery of airborne virus was from infected pigs followed by cattle and sheep. More virus was found in the noses of those examining infected animals than in those operating the samplers, but there was variation between the subjects. In the majority there was a 1·8 log fall in titre by 3·5 hr., but virus persisted in the nose of one subject for 28 hr. Nose blowing or washing the nostrils did not remove virus completely, nor were cloth or industrial masks completely effective in preventing inhalation of virus. It was possible to transmit virus from infected subjects to others on one occasion. No clinical cases of FMD in man resulted from exposure, nor was there any rise in antibody. Use was made of these findings in determining sites of aerosol excretion in animals, and the results are discussed in relation to FMD in man and to the spread of respiratory viruses by the airborne route.