<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><div>Thanks for the explanation, Doug. But as you can see from my other, lengthy post, I was never primarily discussing the hantavirus ( in my region) anyway. I was discussing the other diseases ( bacteriological: which CAN survive outside a living cell, such as in feces) aesthetics, and potentiality of urine-carried pheromones of attracting other mice into the home. After I became deathly-ill from working on a mosue-poop filled piano several years ago, I called a scientist at UGA who told me ( if I remember correclty ) that 142 diseases have been identified as being carried by mice. So the ones listed on the CDC site are probably only the worst of them. Again, Respectfully, Thumpe</div></td></tr></table> <div id="_origMsg_"> <div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif:font-size:10pt"> <div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"> <hr size="1"> From: Douglas Gregg <classicpianodoc@gmail.com>; To: <pianotech@ptg.org>; Subject: [pianotech] mouse contamination from the dark side Sent: Sun, Jul 29, 2012 7:04:46 PM <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" style="font:inherit;"> Euphonious, There is no anger on my part. I am just bothered by regularly seeing scarey posts on hantavirus with a great deal of paranoia about mouse dirt. I know we live in a media world that likes to make a lot out of viruses, but they just are not that tough. I worked for 30 years with some of the worst viruses in the world, and we did it every day without that much concern, except when we were growing large quantities in cells. We also often did tests on new viruses to determine survivability of the virus on inanimate objects.  For the most part,  enveloped viruses such as hantavirus are very labile and quickly die outside of a living cell. No viruses are free living animals. They only contain some nucleic acid and a few proteins and must reproduce inside of a living cell. They can only survive briefly outside of a cell. This is particularly true of the ones that are surrounded by an envelope. The envelope is a very thin membrane similar to the cell membrane. It is very sensitive to all kinds of disinfectants, drying, sunlight, and heat. Just give them a few days and they are dead. We spent a lot more effort trying to keep viruses alive in the lab than trying to kill them. Mouse urine smell is tenacious but viruses are not. Almost any detergent will kill the hantavirus if they are even still there when you start your work, which is unlikely.. Respectfully submitted, Douglas Gregg Classic Piano Doc Retired veterinary pathologist (specialist in virus pathogenesis at Plum Island Animal Disease Center) Plum Island is the equivalent of the CDC for animal diseases Message: 3 Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 20:47:12 -0700 (PDT) From:s Thumpe <<a ymailto="mailto:lclgcnp@yahoo.com" href="javascript:return">lclgcnp@yahoo.com</a>> To: <a ymailto="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org" href="javascript:return">pianotech@ptg.org</a> Subject: Re: Message-ID:         <<a ymailto="mailto:1343533632.99298.YahooMailMobile@web114702.mail.gq1.yahoo.com" href="javascript:return">1343533632.99298.YahooMailMobile@web114702.mail.gq1.yahoo.com</a>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Greetings Douglas and anyone else still interested:     I suggest you search "diseases transmitted by rodents", which brings up the CDC website, where more than hantavirus is mentioned, and there seems to be a greater concern about these things than by some on this list. Besides the disease issue, though, "there is no accounting for taste": so if some choose to have pianos in their homes which smell or even reek of excrement, that's their business. But I am not one, and neither are those whom I would choose to have for customers. That's my right, is it not? So I ask you to please do some self-examining, to discern exactly why this issue raises your hackles so? If it is a concern for me but not for you, why should that make you angry? Thumpe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <<a href="https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20120728/7fd2138b/attachment-0001.htm" target=_blank >https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20120728/7fd2138b/attachment-0001.htm</a>> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div> </div>