Molecular assessment of visitor personal protective equipment contamination with the Aleutian mink disease virus and porcine circovirus-2 in mink and porcine farms

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an element of biosecurity intended to prevent the access or spread of diseases in farms. Nevertheless, to date no extensive reports exist about the effectiveness of different available PPE on farms. Thus, our aim was to estimate the degree of protection of PPE from viral contamination during farm visits. Two farms, infected with Aleutian mink disease virus and porcine circovirus–2 respectively, were visited by six visitors wearing different combinations of PPE: coveralls with hood and bootcovers, both with a certified barrier to infective agents (certified PPE group) and non-certified bootcover and coverall without hood (non-certified PPE group). Seventy-two swab samples from PPE and both hair and street clothes under PPE were taken after the visit and analysed by qPCR. Our results reveal viral exposure during visits, and the external protections of body and shoes were contaminated in all cases (24/24). In addition, protection from viral contamination varied noticeably according to the biosecurity elements used. A higher number of positives were detected in the non-certified PPE group than in the certified PPE group, both in elements under external protections (14/18 vs 3/18) and also in hair (4/6 vs 0/6). In fact, non-certified bootcovers broke during visits, resulting in viral contamination of the internal elements under them; these are consequently not suitable for using with wrinkled surfaces usually found in farm facilities. Thus, certified coveralls should be used in order to prevent contaminations, and workers and personnel of farms should be trained in their proper use. qPCR is a useful tool in the risk management of biosecurity programmes, and our results may serve as a model to evaluate different biosecurity measures.