Industry Summary
Influenza A virus (IAV) transmission between pigs and swine farm workers poses a risk to public health. Swine workers are exposed to influenza virus by handling infected animals, touching contaminated surfaces, and/or breathing contaminated aerosols. Personal protective equipment consisting of face masks can be used to decrease the risk of aerosol exposure. In this study, we evaluated the use of three types of face masks amongst swine farm workers to potentially decrease exposure to influenza virus. We evaluated N-95 respirators, dust masks, surgical masks and compared the results to not wearing masks. Our results indicated that wearing a mask decreased the detection of IAV in the workers. Participants not wearing masks had the most influenza virus detections (24.27%), which was significantly higher (p<0.01) than all the detection rates for all three masks types (10.98% surgical mask, 8:33% dust mask, 5.77% N-95 mask). However, there were no statistically differences in IAV detection rates between the three masks types (p>0.05). Among masks, workers reported that surgical masks were the most comfortable to wear. Our results highlight the importance of using face masks to limit or prevent the transmission of influenza between pigs and farm workers.
