Sessions
Session 4 - a: Advancements in Diagnostic Procedures and Animal Research Facility Management
1:45 PM - 3:30 PM Fri
Livestock operations in Southeast Asia are considered hotspots for emerging zoonotic viruses. Virus surveillance through direct screening of animals is useful, but does not provide a reliable indication of viral aerosol exposure among workers in these settings. To examine the risk of virus aerosolization in human-animal environments, we collected and analyzed 45 bioaerosol, 55 pig fecal, 49 pig oral or water, and 78 worker nasal wash samples among 11 pig farms, 2 abattoirs, and 3 animal markets in Sarawak, Malaysia. Samples were screened using human and pan-species molecular assays targeting respiratory and diarrheal viruses. Additionally, we collected 30 bioaerosol samples and 116 pools of poultry oropharyngeal (OP) swab samples (5 samples per pool) in the largest live poultry market in Hanoi, Vietnam, and screened them for influenza A virus using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and egg culture. Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) and enterovirus was detected in 23% and 15% of the Malaysia farm/abattoir bioaerosol samples, respectively. Influenza A virus was detected in 90% of the bioaerosol samples and 47% of the pools of poultry OP swab samples collected from the Vietnam poultry market. Positivity in bioaerosol samples was not well correlated with positivity among other sample types across the 16 sites in Malaysia, however, there was strong agreement in positivity between sample types in the Vietnam poultry market. Results from these separate studies show that human and animal pathogens may be aerosolized and inhaled by humans working in animal environments, and when combined with molecular diagnostics, bioaerosol sampling offers a new, noninvasive surveillance tool to study the risk of virus aerosolization at the human-animal interface.