Table 1.
Level of personal protective equipment (PPE) used for various work situations and procedures by Australian veterinarians in a survey in 2011.
| Veterinary work situations and procedures | PPE considered adequatea | No PPE No. (%) | Inadequate PPE No. (%) | Adequate PPE No. (%) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Handling healthy animals | Overalls/gown or gloves | 254 (77.0) |
0 (0.0) |
76 (23.0) |
330 |
| 2. Handling clinically sick animals | Overalls/gown or gloves | 140 (43.3) |
0 (0.0) |
183 (56.7) |
323 |
| 3. Performing surgery | Overalls/gown and gloves | 9 (2.8) |
56 (17.7) |
252 (79.5) |
317 |
| 4. Performing post mortems | Overalls/gown and gloves | 10 (3.1) |
57 (17.8) |
253 (79.1) |
320 |
| 5. Conception and parturition procedures | Overalls/gown and gloves | 37 (12.8) |
106 (36.8) |
145 (50.3) |
288 |
| 6. Handling animal feces and urine | Overalls/gown and gloves | 28 (8.5) |
223 (67.4) |
80 (24.2) |
331 |
| 7. Performing dental procedures | Overalls/gown and gloves and face shield/goggles | 12 (3.9) |
37 (12.1) |
257 (84.0) |
306 |
| 8. Treating dermatology cases | Overalls/gown and gloves | 166 (53.5) |
25 (8.1) |
119 (38.4) |
310 |
| 9. Treating respiratory cases | Overalls/gown and gloves | 207 (67.0) |
61 (19.7) |
41 (13.3) |
309 |
| 10. Treating gastrointestinal cases | Overalls/gown and gloves | 127 (40.4) |
109 (34.7) |
78 (24.8) |
314 |
| 11. Treating neurological cases | Overalls/gown or gloves | 219 (71.3) |
0 (0.0) |
88 (28.7) |
307 |
a
The assessment of adequate or inadequate PPE use was based on minimal (not ideal) PPE use recommendations from the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (Scheftel et al., 2010) and the Australian Veterinary Association Guidelines for Veterinary Personal Biosecurity (AVA, 2011) as evaluated by two of the authors (NKD and JAT).