Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships
Biosecurity measures are commonly used to prevent the introduction of non-native species to natural environments globally, yet the efficacy of practices is rarely tested under operational conditions. A voluntary biosecurity measure was trialled in the Norwegian high Arctic following concern that non...
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2018
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Online Access: | https://zenodo.org/record/1222503 https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.37.22088 |
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ftzenodo:oai:zenodo.org:1222503 2023-05-15T14:54:45+02:00 Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships Rumpf, Sabine B. Alsos, Inger Greve Ware, Chris 2018-03-06 https://zenodo.org/record/1222503 https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.37.22088 unknown Pensoft Publishers https://zenodo.org/communities/biosyslit https://zenodo.org/record/1222503 https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.37.22088 oai:zenodo.org:1222503 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode NeoBiota 37 37-49 biosecurity disinfection invasive species microorganisms monitoring tourism info:eu-repo/semantics/article publication-article 2018 ftzenodo https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.37.22088 2023-03-10T22:10:12Z Biosecurity measures are commonly used to prevent the introduction of non-native species to natural environments globally, yet the efficacy of practices is rarely tested under operational conditions. A voluntary biosecurity measure was trialled in the Norwegian high Arctic following concern that non-native species might be transferred to the region on the footwear of travellers. Passengers aboard an expedition cruise ship disinfected their footwear with the broad spectrum disinfectant Virkon S prior to and in-between landing at sites around the remote Svalbard archipelago. The authors evaluated the efficacy of simply stepping through a disinfectant foot bath, which is the most common practice of footwear disinfection aboard expedition cruise ships in the Arctic. This was compared to a more time consuming and little-used method involving drying disinfected footwear, as proposed by other studies. The two practices were evaluated by measuring microbial growth on paired footwear samples before and after disinfection under both conditions. Step-through disinfection did not substantially reduce microbial growth on the footwear. Allowing disinfected footwear to dry, however, reduced the microbial burden significantly to lower levels. Thus, the currently adopted procedures used aboard ships are ineffective at removing microbial burden and are only effective when footwear is given more time to dry than currently granted under operational conditions. These findings underscore results from empirical research performed elsewhere and suggest the need to better relay this information to practitioners. It is suggested that footwear should minimally be wiped dry after step-through disinfection as a reasonable compromise between biosecurity and practicability. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Svalbard Zenodo Arctic Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago NeoBiota 37 37 49 |
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biosecurity disinfection invasive species microorganisms monitoring tourism |
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biosecurity disinfection invasive species microorganisms monitoring tourism Rumpf, Sabine B. Alsos, Inger Greve Ware, Chris Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships |
topic_facet |
biosecurity disinfection invasive species microorganisms monitoring tourism |
description |
Biosecurity measures are commonly used to prevent the introduction of non-native species to natural environments globally, yet the efficacy of practices is rarely tested under operational conditions. A voluntary biosecurity measure was trialled in the Norwegian high Arctic following concern that non-native species might be transferred to the region on the footwear of travellers. Passengers aboard an expedition cruise ship disinfected their footwear with the broad spectrum disinfectant Virkon S prior to and in-between landing at sites around the remote Svalbard archipelago. The authors evaluated the efficacy of simply stepping through a disinfectant foot bath, which is the most common practice of footwear disinfection aboard expedition cruise ships in the Arctic. This was compared to a more time consuming and little-used method involving drying disinfected footwear, as proposed by other studies. The two practices were evaluated by measuring microbial growth on paired footwear samples before and after disinfection under both conditions. Step-through disinfection did not substantially reduce microbial growth on the footwear. Allowing disinfected footwear to dry, however, reduced the microbial burden significantly to lower levels. Thus, the currently adopted procedures used aboard ships are ineffective at removing microbial burden and are only effective when footwear is given more time to dry than currently granted under operational conditions. These findings underscore results from empirical research performed elsewhere and suggest the need to better relay this information to practitioners. It is suggested that footwear should minimally be wiped dry after step-through disinfection as a reasonable compromise between biosecurity and practicability. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rumpf, Sabine B. Alsos, Inger Greve Ware, Chris |
author_facet |
Rumpf, Sabine B. Alsos, Inger Greve Ware, Chris |
author_sort |
Rumpf, Sabine B. |
title |
Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships |
title_short |
Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships |
title_full |
Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships |
title_fullStr |
Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships |
title_full_unstemmed |
Prevention of microbial species introductions to the Arctic: The efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships |
title_sort |
prevention of microbial species introductions to the arctic: the efficacy of footwear disinfection measures on cruise ships |
publisher |
Pensoft Publishers |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://zenodo.org/record/1222503 https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.37.22088 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Svalbard Archipelago |
genre |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
op_source |
NeoBiota 37 37-49 |
op_relation |
https://zenodo.org/communities/biosyslit https://zenodo.org/record/1222503 https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.37.22088 oai:zenodo.org:1222503 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.37.22088 |
container_title |
NeoBiota |
container_volume |
37 |
container_start_page |
37 |
op_container_end_page |
49 |
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1766326505495855104 |