[Microbial contamination of small animal ambulatory veterinary clinics and waiting rooms]

Air and contact indicator microflora was monitored for a year during 17 outpatients' examinations at indicated sites of the balance loading area, examination tables and manipulation tables in an outpatients' consulting room partitioned into two sections (I, II) and in two waiting rooms (I, II) of an internal clinic of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Brno. The consulting room and both waiting rooms were after reconstruction. Ambience monitoring by a sedimentation method demonstrated the lower microbial contamination of waiting room II and outpatients' consulting room II, which were reserved for vaccination of healthy animals. The ambience in waiting room I and outpatients' consulting room I, where diseased animals were examined, showed the higher values microbial contamination. The indicators of microbial contamination under observation involved total microbial counts on meat-peptone agar (MPA), counts of hemolytic (H+) and nonhemolytic (H+) micrococci on blood agar with 10% NaCl, counts of lactose positive (L+) and lactose negative (L-) microbes on Endo agar and of molds and other microbes on Czapek-Dox agar. Frequent occurrence of representatives of the genus Aspergillus and Penicillium out of 42 genera and species of identified molds was indicated in the ambience of the waiting rooms and outpatients' consulting rooms. Examination of the indicated sites of the balance loading area in waiting room I and of examination and manipulation tables in outpatients' consulting rooms by smear and impress methods demonstrated the lowest contamination on the surface of examination tables. Microbial contamination of the balance loading area was however highest, and the identified values indicate a risk of the permanent contact of animal patients with the increased microbe concentrations during their weighing. The balance location in the waiting room is not convenient under the present schedule of cleaning and cleansing. In the Discussion section, an overall decrease in the ambience microbial contamination in waiting rooms and outpatients' consulting room under observation in building no. 9 after reconstruction is shown in comparison with the results of preceding monitoring of the waiting room and outpatients' consulting room in building no. 6 under provisional conditions.