The risk of catching Covid-19 from shared sporting equipment, including saddles, is likely to be low, researchers in Britain report.
The researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LTSM) tested 10 types of sporting equipment, ranging from a polyurethane saddle to a football, rugby ball, tennis ball, red and white cricket balls, and cricket gloves. A stainless steel surface was used as a control.
The study team, led by Dr Emily Adams, assessed that the risk of transmission from sports gear was low, adding that the risk is probably higher during the player interaction before, during and after sport.
While the virus lasted the longest on the polyurethane saddle, it was still only a few minutes for lower viral loads, and the evidence suggests that more porous materials such as leather may be even less friendly to the virus.
“For the high dose droplets, virus was recoverable from every material except the cricket glove at the one-minute time point. The highest recovery was from the rugby ball, steel control disks and horse saddle, while the lowest viral quantities retrieved were from the absorbent materials such as the cricket glove, red cricket ball and tennis ball. No virus could be retrieved at 90 minutes, except for the horse saddle and rugby ball, although viral levels had reduced to 2 and 12 virions, respectively.”
To read the full article on Horsetalk.co.nz, please click here.
