Foot-and-mouth disease – Quantification and size distribution of airborne particles emitted by healthy and infected pigs

There is strong evidence to suggest that foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) can be transmitted by airborne virus up to many kilometres from a virus source. Atmospheric dispersion models are often used to predict where this disease might spread. This study investigated whether FMD virus (FMDV) aerosol has specific characteristics which need to be taken into consideration in these models. The characteristics and infectiousness of particles emitted by 12 pigs have been studied pre- and post-infection with O UKG 2001 FMDV. Aerosol generated by individual pigs was found log normally distributed in the range 0.015–20.0 μm with concentrations between 1000 and 10 000 cm −3 at the smallest size and