An educational intervention, the use of optimal sanitisation and regular measurement of infection control outcomes can greatly reduce contamination levels in the veterinary practice

OBJECTIVES: To scientifically quantify the levels of surface contamination in veterinary practice, by using staff training, good sanitisation and regular unannounced testing, to see if contamination levels can be reduced. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirteen sites were subject to pre-intervention testing, using adenosine triphosphate testing. Eleven sites (where retesting was permitted) were involved in the trial. Training (a 45 minutes staff training session) was provided in 10 sites. A standardised cleaning regime was applied; repeat samples were collected from standardised sites (average of 70 days later). The trial was extended to a third test (on average 128 days from the start) for the five sites geographically closest to the author. Five hundred and eighty-six pre-intervention samples, 462 initial post-intervention samples and 241 second post-intervention samples were tested. RESULTS: Veterinary practices were found not to be as clean as anticipated. The average level of pre-intervention contamination was 14.7 times the recommended threshold (ranging from 0.6 to 38.5). On retesting at on average of 70 days (n = 10), an average 61.2% reduction in contamination was recorded. The five sites closest to the author were sampled a third time on average of 128 (on average 47.8 swabs) days from the start, achieving a 71.4% reduction from pre-intervention contamination levels. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: As also demonstrated previously by various researchers regular, unannounced hygiene measurements (in this case combined with on-site staff training and changes to sanitisation protocols) can reduce nosocomial infection rates by between 45% and 75%.