Avoiding the Virus

Avoiding the virus. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture.

Working on a farm is an enjoyable vocation,at least it was for me as a boy growing up in the Midwest. One of my fondest memories was the hay loft where we probably spent way too much time horsing around then actually working. We also did not realize there were a lot of additional dangers lurking in the dark corners. In the northwest especially are small creatures called deer mice that like to keep to corners and spend most of it's time foraging while leaving behind a trail of virus laden droppings. The result is something called HPS or Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. Chris Wirth is manager of Multnomah County Oregon Vector and Code Enforcement.

WIRTH: There's other kinds of mice out there but it's really just deer mice and in particular deer mice have a preference I guess you'd say typically found in settings where maybe there's a building that hasn't been used in a while; maybe they're found in more settings that are bordering on urban-rural so they're not necessarily always found in the same localities where the regular house mouse is.

That puts deer mice in a lot of farm settings like barns and other out-buildings. But those are areas where we find other kinds of mice. Wirth talks about the differences.

WIRTH: To the average person they would look very similar, they have some physical differences  there's some coloring differences, deer mice have larger ears.

The hantavirus causes flu-like symptoms that can escalate into respiratory failure if left untreated. Health officials suggest if you come down with flu-like symptoms and have been in an area where you may have been exposed to the hantavirus that you let your physician know. The virus is not spread from person to person but according to Wirth is contracted through the air.

WIRTH: One of the worst things that you can do is do dry cleaning which would mean sweeping or vacuuming.

Wirth suggests wetting down the area before cleaning.

WIRTH: Wet everything down with a mixture of bleach mixed at 10% with water or something like Lysol or other disinfectant. You let it set for 20 minutes and then you clean it up, and what that does is keep all those rodent excreta from floating around in the air and it's actually disinfected it and then you would just clean it up with rags and when you are done wash your hands and take a shower and launder your clothing.

For more information be sure and contact your local health department.

That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.