<<As long as there is no horse shit on the rusty nails there is no tetanus risk anyway, so any remedy, including raspberry juice or swear words, will do.>> Hello Hans, This is from WebMD: Spores of the bacterium Clostridium tetani live in the soil and are distributed worldwide. In the spore form, Clostridium tetani may remain dormant in the soil but infectious for periods longer than 40 years. And from www.cyberhorse.net.au/csl/tetanus.htm Epidemiology Persistent spores can be found in the soil (it is more prevalent in cultivated than uncultivated soils) and organisms are routinely isolated from the faeces of many domestic animals, including the dog and cat, and also from humans. Siobhan