Role of the airborne route in the transmission of swine pathogens

At the 2004 AASV (American Association of Swine Veterinarians) conference, Robert Desrosiers gave a remarkable lecture on the epidemiology, diagnosis and control of swine diseases. During the conference, he cited a number of examples to highlight the role of aerosols of indirect contamination in disease transmission. His opinion was that the focus is all too often on directs, and that we should not lose sight of the other routes of contamination. This article reports much of the evidence presented to the AASV by Robert Desrosiers.