Those working in animal agriculture can be at risk of airborne exposure to infectious viruses and bacteria. The project will build on previous Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) research, in which the team designed a novel high-flow Cascade Virtual Impactor (CVI) for measuring airborne virus and bacteria particle concentrations and size distributions. This sampler will be used to measure viruses and bacteria in swine gestation and farrowing, swine wean-to-finish, poultry, and dairy facilities. At the same time, researchers will measure various factors that may determine exposure to viruses and bacteria, like environmental conditions, animal characteristics, housing factors, and ventilation conditions.

Why is this important?

When animals generate virus- and bacteria-containing aerosols, animal agriculture workers may be exposed and become infected. These workers may be able to transmit the pathogens to people outside the workplace, which means that infections occurring in animal agriculture present serious health and economic burdens.