02/07/2025
Good resource to have! Thank you Gayle for sharing.
Hagyard’s Dr. Nathan Slovis was fortunate enough to discuss how the horse community can be exposed to and potentially contaminate clothing with infectious pathogens with Dr. Charles P. Gerba from the University of Arizona. Dr. Gerba has published over 500 manuscripts, many of which focus on whether enteric viruses, fungi, and bacteria such as Salmonella, rotavirus, and hepatitis A virus (HAV) survive the wash cycle, rinse cycle, and drying cycle commonly practiced in households in the United States.
Dr. Gerba and his colleagues have found that washing with detergent alone is not effective in removing or inactivating enteric viruses or bacteria from excessively soiled clothing. The most important factors for reducing the presence of viruses, bacteria, and fungi in laundry include washing on the hot cycle, using advanced detergents that contain enzymes and surfactants, and incorporating sanitizing agents. Following these protocols have been shown to reduce the pathogen load in laundry after washing and drying by at least 99.99%. Remember to utilize hot water, as that is necessary to help kill these infectious agents.
If you need to disinfect your laundry machine, Dr. Gerba recommends placing 500ml of household bleach into the washing machine, allow it to run a “full cycle” with NO laundry in HOT water and repeat. To decontaminate the dryer, it should be cycled for 2 hours at a minimum temperature of 131 degrees Fahrenheit, or you can manually clean the dryer with a strong disinfectant like accelerated hydrogen peroxide.
