What is the Difference Between Cleaning and Disinfecting?

Meri Hall, RVT, CVT, LVT, LATG, VTS (SAM), veterinary technician of internal medicine, from Veterinary Specialty Hospital of Palm Beach Gardens, discusses the difference between cleaning and disinfecting.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

"A lot of people have the misconception that when they clean, they're removing a lot of the microbes that can cause disease. Cleaning is just the aspect of cleaning up the major dirt, bodily fluids, things like that and then disinfecting is the removal of infectious disease agents, bacterias, viruses, down to an acceptable level to where we're not going to cause the disease and transfer it to something else."