Abstract
Competitive sports that involve extensive contact with mud are commonly held events and growing in popularity. However, the natural environment contributes to infection risks, and these events have been implicated in multiple infectious disease outbreaks. Soils and mud contain rich microbial communities and can include pathogens (including viruses, bacteria, and parasites), thereby offering risk of infection; there is also a risk of disease due to shedding, by participants, of pathogens directly into the environment. These disease risks are ubiquitous and are present in the most developed countries, as well as elsewhere. Prevention of the further spread of mud sport-related infections through secondary infections to non-participant community members is of critical importance. We recommend shifts in practice and policy, such as site condition monitoring, improved messaging with regards to infections risk, and implementation of pre- and post-event wash stations to reduce these risks.
Highlights
Broader Risk With the likelihood of encountering infectious doses and varied methods of introduction to the race environment, infectious diseases are a legitimate threat to mud sport participants
Policy Recommendations Removing the infection risk associated with mud sports completely is unfeasible—it is an inherent aspect of using the natural environment as an arena
Since there is a rich history of water-borne disease outbreaks in bodies of water used for triathlons or open water swims (e.g., [64]), the potential public health risk of these events is well-accepted and regulatory policies and practices are present and accepted [65]
Summary
Competitive mud sports, including events such as mountain biking and obstacle course races, in which contact with mud is frequent, are popular with a wide array of participants [1,2,3]. Leptospira, which uses mammals as reservoirs and is typically spread through contaminated urine, has been clinically isolated from outbreak cases associated with adventure races [31, 32] This microbe persists in soil [33], leptospirosis is mainly a concern for events with open water swimming, including triathlons [34, 35], where it is difficult to know whether the mud or water is the source. None of the outbreak cases that have been documented have yielded known resistant isolates, it is an important consideration for rural events, in the context of current antibiotic usage Both soil and water potentially contribute to the pathogenic load of mud. In many of the outbreak cases discussed above, the water source tested negative for the infectious agent, or it was not tested, but it is still important to consider as both a direct and indirect pathogen source
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