Influenza transmission in the guinea pig model is insensitive to the ventilation airflow speed: evidence for the role of aerosolized fomites

Recent experimental work in a guinea pig model has established that influenza A virus is transmissible through the air via aerosolized fomites, which are microscopic dust and dander particulates contaminated with virus (Asadi et al., Nature Communications, 2020). Here, we report that influenza A transmits efficiently from intranasally inoculated animals to downwind susceptible animals over a wide range of ventilation airspeeds, with a slight increase in transmission probability observed despite increasing the airspeed by a factor of 10. We interpret this finding in terms of a Guassian plume model for airborne disease transmission, and we discuss the implications for transmission via aerosolized fomites in animal models and in humans.