Researchers think they have found a way to kill all viruses by treating air and they are testing it on a farm in Michigan.
They are using nonthermal plasmas, which are somewhat like sparks, to charge air molecules so they kill 99.9 per cent of viruses in the air.
"The most difficult disease transmission route to guard against is airborne because we have relatively little to protect us when we breathe," said Herek Clack, University of Michihan research associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Clack and his research team have begun testing their reactor on ventilation air streams at a livestock farm near Ann Arbor.
Animal agriculture and its vulnerability to contagious livestock diseases such as avian influenza and PRRS viruses has a demonstrated near-term need for such technologies.
