Leptospirosis

Educate yourself on the symptoms of leptospirosis in animals.

Workers can be exposed to the bacteria by skin or eye contact, breathing in droplets, or swallowing contaminated water.

1. Inspect your business
   Think about your workplace and note where your work environment or processes create the risk of exposure to leptospirosis.
2. Talk to your workers
   Talk to your workers to find out if they have any health and safety concerns. A confidential survey could give workers who are less likely to speak out in public a chance to provide feedback.
3. Review information

• Monitor where leptospirosis is reported in your region
• Use your own records of reported infections, sick leave, and other notes.
• Read the information provided by industry bodies (such as Meat and Livestock Australia), as well as the relevant legislation and codes of practice.
• Research how other workplaces have managed leptospirosis risks. Ask your peers and advisors, and use the internet to find information specific to your situation.

Find more information on how to identify risks in How to manage work health and safety risks code of practice 2021 (PDF, 0.65 MB).

Do a risk assessment to establish:

• if there is a risk to you or others
• whether any effective control measures are already in place
• what actions you could take to control the risk
• how urgently you should act.

A risk assessment can include looking at:

• the nature of your work and how this exposes workers and others
• what inductions and training you have in place
• whether the work is required or if it can be rescheduled, reorganised, or restructured to reduce the risk
• seasonal considerations (e.g. wet season)

Use this risk assessment template (DOCX, 0.02 MB) to guide and record your assessments.

After assessing the risk, use control measures to eliminate or reduce the risk. Eliminate leptospirosis risks as much as reasonably possible. If this is not possible, minimise the risks.

The hierarchy of control is a step-by-step approach to eliminating or reducing risk. It ranks risk controls from the highest level of protection and reliability through to the lowest and least reliable protection.

Implement control measures in this order:

• Level 1: Get rid of the harm and prevent the risk.
• Level 2: Replace the hazard with something less harmful, separate people from the hazard, or change work processes or the physical work environment.
• Level 3: Use administrative controls to reduce exposure (such as limiting time spent in a hazardous area) or use personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect people from harm.

Eliminate the risk of exposure to leptospirosis:

• There is no human vaccination for leptospirosis.
• Leptospira bacteria are quickly killed by soap, disinfectants or bleach, and drying.
• Vaccinate your livestock and dogs against leptospirosis if that will work for your situation.
• Keep work areas, storage, food, bedding, etc clear of rats and mice.

Minimise the risk of exposure to leptospirosis:

• Change work processes and redesign tasks to minimise the number of workers exposed to infection.
• Update or improve your workspace to keep it cleaner and drier.
• Wear protective clothing (gloves, eye shields or goggles, aprons, and waterproof boots) when working with animals or animal parts that could be infected, especially if there is a chance of contact with their urine.
• Wear waterproof protective clothing (if possible) and boots outdoors, especially when walking in faeces, mud or wet soil.
• Wear gloves when cutting bananas or cane, gardening, or working with soil.
• Cover cuts and abrasions with a waterproof dressing. Wash and dry the area before changing the dressing afterwards.
• Do not eat, drink or smoke while handling anything that may be contaminated. Wash your hands with soap and dry them thoroughly before smoking, eating or drinking.

Other control measures:

• Have a biosecurity plan for your workplace.
• Have a safe system of work for keeping areas clean, dry and well drained as much as possible.
• Clean and disinfect anywhere that is contaminated with animal urine or has signs of mice and rats.
• Give your staff the information, training and supervision they need to protect themselves from leptospirosis risks.
• Display awareness and information posters in staff areas.
• Have handwashing and shower facilities (including soap, disinfectant, and something to dry hands with) for workers to use. Display “how to wash your hands” signs in the bathrooms and lunchrooms.
• Don’t eat or serve food that rats or mice may have been on or near.
• Don’t drink untreated water. If you need to use untreated water, make it safe to drink by boiling or using an appropriate chemical treatment, especially if collecting from a source that could be contaminated by floodwater or yard runoff.
• Don’t walk barefoot through water or mud that may be infected (yard runoff, drainage trenches).
• Don’t touch dead animals with your bare hands.
• Don’t feed raw offal to your dogs. This increases the risk of them getting leptospirosis and passing it to humans.

Risk management is an ongoing process. Check regularly to make sure the control measures are working. If you find problems or if you have a leptospirosis infection or outbreak, go through the steps again, review the information, and decide whether you need new controls.

Under the work health and safety laws you must review the controls:

• when you become aware that a control measure is not working effectively
• before a change that might create a new risk
• when you find a new hazard or risk
• when your workers tell you that a review is needed
• after a health and safety representative requests a review.

You can find a list to help you find any issues in the How to manage work health and safety risks code of practice 2021 (PDF, 0.65 MB).