This topic has taken a long time to surface. Personally, I’ve often wondered about zoonotic risks from taking therapy animals into hospitals and nursing homes. While human patients receive many benefits from animal visits, the reality is that facilities are not monitoring or managing the risks.
Guidelines for safety, health and monitoring do exist, with one set from the AVMA and another from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Tufts University has also produced a manual of its own.
Source: Veterinary Practice News, July 7, 2017.
According to a Tufts University press release:
“In addition to concerns about human allergies to animals, animal behavior, stress on the animal and appropriate animal immunizations, [animal-assisted intervention (AAI)] programs have a potential risk of transmission of zoonotic disease—diseases spread between animals and people. This risk is especially high when health, grooming and hand-washing protocols are not carefully used. Another potential risk could come from therapy animals eating raw meat-based diets or treats, which are at high risk of being contaminated with bacteria such as Campylobacter, Salmonella and Cryptosporidium. These pathogens may pose risks to both humans and animals, and especially immunocompromised patients.”
INSIGHTS: For animal health pros this article is a call to action. Simply sharing this article with administrators of patient care facilities in your area can make a difference. If each of us working in animal health shared the article with one facility, the potential to improve the situation in thousands of facilities is within reach. For those working on One Health initiatives, here’s a place to focus resources.