Getting cleaning and disinfection right is crucial for preventing disease in animal shelters, but it’s also an area many organizations are getting wrong. Here are lifesaving tips from the experts:
1. Sanitation has to go beyond just cleaning cages and kennel runs. Germs can be found anywhere in the shelter where humans or animals go.
The Koret Shelter Medicine Program at UC Davis identifies “doorknobs, clothing, carriers, exam tables, instruments, animal transport vehicles,”and similar surfaces and items as being “a much more likely source of disease transmission than the cages or runs themselves.”
Read more on sanitation from Koret…
2. Consider using accelerated hydrogen peroxide (AHP) as a disinfectant. According to Dr. Miranda Spindel writing in Animal Sheltering, AHP is considered the standard of care in human health settings. While it can be more expensive than other, less effective methods, she says, “unlike most disinfectants — which require at least 10 minutes of contact time — AHPs are labeled to sanitize (clean) in just 30 seconds and disinfect (kill pathogens) in only five minutes.” They also kill parvo, which many common disinfectants used in shelters do not.
3. Don’t let cleaning time become “infection-spreading time.” In an ASPCAPro webinar, Drs. Kate Hurley and Natalie Isaza say that “Cleaning time is when you’re most likely to inadvertently spread disease to animals or people — that’s when staff and volunteers get the dirtiest. You’ll come into contact with hair, feces, litter, food, and more, and then have the opportunity to track it through the shelter.” Their recommendation: “Make sure your written sanitation protocols are safe, effective, and practical.”
Watch the webinar recording here…
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