Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Infectious Diseases, Inflammation Center, Helsinki University Central Hospital and University of Helsinki, HUS, Finland.
Vet Med Sci. 2021 Jul;7(4):1059-1070. doi: 10.1002/vms3.464. Epub 2021 Mar 1.
Veterinarians face the risk of contracting zoonotic pathogens. Infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines stress the importance of proper hand hygiene and personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent transmission of these pathogens.
We aimed to assess how ambulatory livestock and equine veterinarians follow IPC guidelines, when working on farms and in stables.
We studied hygiene practices of livestock and equine ambulatory veterinarians (n = 129) in Finland. A web-based questionnaire was used to obtain demographic information and information regarding hand-hygiene facilities and practices, use and cleaning of PPE and cleaning of medical equipment.
According to 66.9% of the respondents, hand-washing facilities were often adequate on livestock farms, but only 21.4% reported that this was the case in stables (p < .001). While 75.0% reported washing their hands or using hand sanitizer always before moving on to the next farm, only 42.5% reported doing this before moving on to the next stables (p < .001). Universal protective coat or coverall use was more common in livestock practice than in equine practice (91.6% vs. 27.7%, p < .001). Stethoscope cleaning was reported to happen less frequently than once a week by 30.0% of the respondents.
Finnish veterinarians' self-reported IPC adherence was far from uniform. IPC was more commonly followed in ambulatory livestock practice perhaps facilitated by better hand-washing facilities on farms than in stables. The study suggests that education of veterinarians is still needed and that hand-washing facilities need to be improved even in a high-income country.
兽医面临感染人畜共患病病原体的风险。感染预防和控制 (IPC) 指南强调了正确的手部卫生和个人防护设备 (PPE) 的重要性，以防止这些病原体的传播。
我们旨在评估从事家畜和马属动物门诊的兽医在农场和厩舍工作时遵循 IPC 指南的情况。
我们研究了芬兰 129 名家畜和马属动物门诊兽医的卫生实践。使用基于网络的问卷获取人口统计学信息以及有关手部卫生设施和实践、PPE 的使用和清洁以及医疗设备清洁的信息。
根据 66.9%的受访者的说法，家畜养殖场的洗手设施通常充足，但只有 21.4%的受访者报告厩舍情况如此（p<.001）。虽然 75.0%的受访者报告在前往下一个农场之前总是洗手或使用手部消毒剂，但只有 42.5%的受访者报告在前往下一个厩舍之前这样做（p<.001）。在家畜实践中，比在马属动物实践中更常使用通用防护服或全身防护服（91.6%对 27.7%，p<.001）。有 30.0%的受访者报告听诊器清洗频率低于每周一次。
芬兰兽医自我报告的 IPC 遵守情况远非一致。IPC 在门诊家畜实践中更为常见，这可能得益于农场的洗手设施比厩舍更好。该研究表明，仍需要对兽医进行教育，即使在高收入国家，也需要改善洗手设施。
