Are Visitor and Personnel Downtime Restrictions an Effective Biosecurity Measure to Prevent the Indirect Transmission of Pathogens to Livestock?

ABSTRACT: Downtime, also known as an animal avoidance period, refers to a 24-72 h period during which individuals who have had contact with one animal species avoid subsequent contact with other susceptible species. This scoping review critically evaluated the effectiveness of downtime as a biosecurity measure. Peer-reviewed studies were identified and analysed using three electronic databases (Pubmed, Web of Science and Scopus). Two experimental studies directly evaluated downtime, nine additional articles examined human nasal carriage of pathogens after exposure to infected animals and seven articles evaluated the effectiveness of hygiene-based biosecurity measures targeting indirect mechanical pathogen transmission via humans (n = 14 unique articles in total; topical overlap noted where st

SUBMITTER: Jerab JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12837341 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature