A new paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B is a bit disconcerting. The paper “Skin as a potential source of infectious foot and mouth disease aerosols” is by Michael Dillon from Lawrence Livermore Labs (I have added the reference to the microBEnet collections at Mendeley and CiteULike). A bit more about the paper can be found in a press release: Foot and mouth disease may spread through shedding skin cells | Science Blog. The paper is basically a review and some theoretical proposals about the disease. Seems perfectly plausible. Though I note, as with the recent bedbugs and MRSA story, there does not appear to be evidence in complete support of the theory at this time. But in general, I would say, it is a bad week for the skin public relations department.
