Visitor behaviour and public health implications associated with exotic pet markets: an observational study

Warwick, Clifford; Arena, Phillip C; Steedman, Catrina

Each investigator engaged in five minutes of observation at a location (e.g. a trader stall) and noted all visitor contact behaviours. Figures 1a and 1b outline the mode of contact observation systems. Individuals who handled or otherwise touched animals were noted as 'direct' contact events and those who touched proximal inanimate intermediary surfaces were noted as 'indirect' contact events with a presumed contaminated source. Both direct and indirect contact events were further observed to establish whether they subsequently touched their own head ('hand to head including mouth' = 'H1'), body ('hand to body or clothes' = 'H2 0 ) or other person (hand to another person = 'H3'). Results were marked on preprinted tables under categories of 'Direct', 'Indirect,' 'H1 0 , 'H2 0 and 'H3 0 , and tallied after each five-minute observation period. Hygiene efforts (referring to intentional efforts of a person to sanitize their hands or related action) were recorded (not tabulated) by observing whether or not individuals attempted to, for example, clean their hands immediately after contact with a presumed contaminated source.