Disinfection alternatives for contact surfaces and toys at child care centers

Abstract

Child care surfaces are vehicles for disease-causing organisms. Disinfectant procedures prevent microbial dispersion. This study reports the effectiveness of CITRUS Farm Edition® (CFE), Clorox® GreenWorks™ (CGW) and Clorox® Anywhere® (CA) against Salmonella Typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus inoculated (1 ml of 9Log₁₀ CFU/ml) on a high chair and ball toy. Disinfectants were sprayed and bacteria recovered from surfaces by sponge method. Exposing an inoculated high chair to CA resulted in the highest reduction of S. aureus (3.92 Log₁₀) and S. Typhimurium (3.22 Log₁₀). CGW reduced S. aureus and S. Typhimurium by 2.84 and 2.12 Log₁₀ from the inoculated high chair, while the inoculated ball toy showed a 2.50 and 1.80 Log₁₀ reduction, respectively. CFE showed the lowest reduction with 1.42 and 1.53 Log₁₀ of S. aureus and S. Typhimurium from the inoculated ball toy. CA was the best disinfectant no matter which bacteria or surface was analyzed. Emphasis on the effectiveness of disinfectant products is needed to be included in child care center infection control programs.

Keywords:

• child care centers
• surface disinfection
• Salmonella Typhimurium
• Staphylococcus aureus

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Yesenia Leal at the Centro de Investigacion en Alimentacion y Desarrollo, Unidad Culiacan, for technical assistance in this research work.