[SallyintNorth]

There's been some discussion on Ravelry about the (slim) possibility of a handspinner contracting orf if they handle a raw fleece and have any broken skin on their hands (and aren't wearing rubber gloves.)

Any comments, anyone?

Linked from Crafts to keep all the discussion in one place - I hope.

[shep53]

May be possible  Orf is very tough and can survive off the sheep for a long time , many years ago i read that orf grown in a dish was put on the roof of the mordun , no lid on the dish only given a roof to keep the rain off and it survived all winter

[Fleecewife]

I really think the possibility is very remote, but if anyone is really worried then simple precautions should be enough.  Any cuts, no matter how small, should be covered by a waterproof dressing - but you should do that when handling raw fleece anyway, to prevent infection of any sort entering the body through a break in the skin.
Spinners should also only buy their fleeces from a reputable fleece producer, who wouldn't be offering a fleece from an animal with orf for sale (or of course, grow your own).  Getting a free fleece from 'a farmer' who hasn't been thinking of hand spinners when his animals were shorn, would pose more of a chance of getting orf from the fleece than from someone who is in the business of providing fleeces to craft workers.  That is not to criticise larger producers, but under normal circumstances with fleeces sold to the Wool Board, they would expect scouring (washing) would surely destroy any residual virus.  So someone who doesn't normally supply fleeces to hand spinners would have no idea which fleece belonged to which sheep, let alone if it had orf, when rummaging through the wool sheet for a single fleece.

[SallyintNorth]

I think you're right, FW.  Plus, except for some longwool breeds, fleece for spinning generally comes off older sheep, not first season lambs, and for the most part, older sheep on a farm which has orf are immune to the virus and therefore very unlikely to have it.

[Fleecewife]

Very true 
 
Are there any statistics which demonstrate that anyone has actually got orf from fleece, or are they just thinking of obscure possibilities on Ravelry?

[Anke]

I think you're right, FW.  Plus, except for some longwool breeds, fleece for spinning generally comes off older sheep, not first season lambs, and for the most part, older sheep on a farm which has orf are immune to the virus and therefore very unlikely to have it.

Do they carry the virus and that way become infective to young sheep that way, or do they develop immunity/anti-bodies? I am not sure I really know that much about orf... but almost ALL of my lambs last year had it badly, post-weaning!
 
If they carry the virus, then of course any person not having that immunity would be likely to catch orf. I would have thought the possibility of getting it from handling fleece is remote, I certainly don't wear gloves (except when handling sheep that clearly have an outbreak), and have so far not caught it.
 
If it was transferred via fleece I am sure it would be known/discussed.

[17AndCounting]

I'm learning to spin (slowly) so I've had lots of books out of the library, I haven't seen any reference to this in terms of preparing fleece for spinning.

[jaykay]

Should think the risk of sitting at the computer researching it is greater.

If folk are immuno-compromised then they ought to wear gloves. If not, they ought to get out more!

[landroverroy]

 As orf is not renowned for being an occupational hazard of shearers, who must handle thousands of fleeces in a season, then the chances of anyone else getting it must be fairly remote.
 Having caught it myself, many years ago, it's not a life changing disease anyway. You're probably more likely to catch e coli.