New study shows DVMs still at high risk for zoonotic infections

Iowa City, Iowa

-- Veterinarians remain at a higher risk of zoonotic infections than farm workers or other occupational groups that work with animals, according to researchers at the University of Iowa.

In their review of about 40 years of medical literature through 2007, study authors Whitney Baker, a doctoral student in epidemiology at the university's College of Public Health, and Gregory Gray, MD, an epidemiology professor and director of the University of Iowa Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, found 66 articles that addressed veterinarians and zoonotic infections, noting that DVMs often show clinical signs of zoonotic influenza virus infection.

The review specifically shows the veterinary community to be at higher risk for pathogens such as swine and avian influenza, swine hepatitis E, Brucella, Coxiella burnetii, avian and feline Chlamydia psittaci, methicillin-resistant Staphlococcus aureus and Bartonella bacteria.

There was no evidence that DVMs played a direct role in the current H1N1 "swine flu" virus outbreak, but they can act as a "bridging population" to spread various pathogens to their families, communities and the animals they treat, the researchers say.

By their own admission, a significant percentage of veterinarians often neglect to exercise all recommended hygienic procedures and wear protective gear because of discomfort, lack of availability at the time or location of some procedures, especially those conducted in the field, and the belief that their exposure risk is low, according to seven published surveys the researches analyzed, plus their own conversations with veterinarians.

Some current national policies aimed at preventing an influenza pandemic should be revised to include veterinarians, according to Baker and Gray. For example, those who work with swine and poultry should be in the highest priority group for receiving annual vaccines, they said.

Their study paper appears in the May 15 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.