Assessing the biosecurity risk of footwear as a fomite for transmission of adventitious infectious agents to mice Journal Article
| Authors: | Palillo, M. B.; Mishkin, N.; Atmane, M. I.; Palillo, J. A.; Carrasco, S. E.; Woods, C.; Henderson, K. S.; Lipman, N. S.; Ricart Arbona, R. J. |
| Article Title: | Assessing the biosecurity risk of footwear as a fomite for transmission of adventitious infectious agents to mice |
| Abstract: | The soles of staff shoes accessing vivaria can become contaminated on urban streets, potentially serving as a source of fomite-mediated transmission of adventitious agents to laboratory rodents. While shoe covers may mitigate this risk, donning them can lead to hand contamination. Staff accessing our vivaria use motor-driven shoe cleaners hundreds of times daily to remove and collect particulates via a vacuum collection system from the top, sole, and sides of shoes instead of shoe covers. Shoe cleaner debris (SCD) and contact media (CM) exposed to SCD from shoe cleaners in 5 vivaria were assessed by PCR for 84 adventitious agents. SCD and CM samples tested positive for 33 and 37 agents, respectively, and a combined 39 agents total. To assess SCD infectivity, NSG (NOD.Cg-Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ) and Swiss outbred mice were housed for 7 d in direct contact with SCD and oronasally inoculated with a suspension created from SCD collected from each of the 5 vivaria. Mice were tested by PCR and serology at 3, 7, 14, and 63 d postinoculation. All mice remained healthy until the study’s end and tested negative for all agents found in SCD/CM except murine astrovirus 1, Staphylococcus xylosus, and Candidatus Savagella, agents known to be enzootic in the experimental mouse source colony. In a follow-up study, the soles of 27 staff street shoes were directly sampled using CM. Half of CM was used for PCR, while the other half was added as bedding material to a cage containing NSG and Swiss outbred mice. While CM tested positive for 11 agents, all mice were healthy at 63 d postexposure and again positive for only enzootic agents. These results suggest that shoe debris might not be a significant biosecurity risk to laboratory mice, questioning the need for shoe covers or cleaners when entering experimental barrier vivaria. Copyright 2025 by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. |
| Keywords: | controlled study; nonhuman; follow up; polymerase chain reaction; mouse; clinical assessment; animal experiment; animal model; risk factor; risk assessment; clinical evaluation; staphylococcus aureus; streptococcus pneumoniae; serology; bordetella bronchiseptica; virus pneumonia; vacuum; disease transmission; nucleic acid; pseudomonas aeruginosa; demodex; giardia; lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus; pneumocystis; klebsiella oxytoca; cryptosporidium; campylobacter jejuni; klebsiella pneumoniae; murine cytomegalovirus; agriculture; suspension; streptococcus group a; helicobacter hepaticus; proteus mirabilis; helicobacter; streptococcus agalactiae; encephalitozoon cuniculi; infectivity; cestode; female; article; helicobacter bilis; biosafety; streptobacillus moniliformis; entamoeba; lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus; tritrichomonas; infectious agent; biosecurity; mycoplasma pulmonis; staphylococcus xylosus; chlamydia muridarum; alphacoronavirus; bordetella pseudohinzii; campylobacter coli; candidatus savagella; chilomastix muris; fomite; helicobacter ganmani; helicobacter mastromyrinus; helicobacter rodentium; helicobacter typhlonius; murine polyomavirus; ornithonyssus bacoti; pasteurella multocida; rodentibacter pneumotropicus; spironucleus muris; streptococcus group c |
| Journal Title: | Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science |
| Volume: | 64 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| ISSN: | 1559-6109 |
| Publisher: | American Association for Laboratory Animal Science |
| Date Published: | 2025-03-01 |
| Start Page: | 272 |
| End Page: | 286 |
| Language: | English |
| DOI: | 10.30802/aalas-jaalas-24-126 |
| PROVIDER: | scopus |
| PMCID: | PMC11977765 |
| DOI/URL: | |
| Notes: | Article -- MSK Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA008748) acknowledged in PDF -- MSK corresponding author is Rodolfo Ricart Arbona -- Source: Scopus |
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