BIOSAFETY NEWS 1 st Edition

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1 Introduction Why have a biosafety newsletter? Well there are a number of reasons why we should have newsletter. It will provide information to researchers and School/Centre managers of any changes to the Gene Technology Act and Regulations or any other changes that the UWA Institutional Biosafety Committee need to let you know about. In this inaugural edition of the newsletter, the IBC would like to let you know about: New staff sign off for Exempt Dealings, Facilities which have recently been Certified by the OGTR, Information that you must provide for the Institutional GM record at UWA, Security Sensitive Biological Agents Tier 2 Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) Biosafety tips The IBC is hoping to make this a Bi-annual newsletter. I would like any feedback from you and also would be interested in having a Question and Answer section. So please send me any questions you have about biosafety and I will attempt to answer them in the next edition of Biosafety News. GENE TECHNOLOGY/OGTR Exempt dealings All researchers currently holding Exempt Dealings are asked to download and complete a copy of the Exempt Dealing Sign Off Sheet and the Guidance notes for the containment of Exempt Dealings. These are now available on the Biosafety Webpage. Please return either a scanned completed copy to biosafety@uwa.edu.au or by internal mail to Dr Sylvia Lachberg Research Services M459. New OGTR Certified Facilities at UWA The latest facilities to be certified by the OGTR at UWA are a laboratory in the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis located in the Physics building. Building name and/or number: Physics 245 Facility name: Room 1.74 and 1.74A Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA) Physical Containment (PC) level: PC2 OGTR certification number: Cert 2831 Date of certification: 2 December 2008 Expiry date of certification: 1 December 2013 Date last inspected: 05/06/2009 Primary contact: Mr Steve Parry 1

2 Phone number: Institutional GMO Record Under the new OGTR regulations coming into place this year, UWA is required to keep an Institutional record of the storage of all GMOs. This record will contain the following information 1. Principle Investigator 2. Dealing/licence number 3. Building number 4. Floor number 5. Room number 6. Freezer number 7. Shelf number 8. Dealing/licence number. The IBC will ask for this to be updated every six months in order to have a current record of the GMOs and their location in case of audit by the OGTR or worse still an emergency. Supervisors should already hold a more detailed record of their GMOs which at a minimum should contain 1. Box number 2. Position number in the box 3. GMO number 4. Dealing/licence number. School /Centre managers will be asked to collate this information in an excel spreadsheet for their own record and send to send a copy to biosafety@uwa.edu.au for central record keeping. The IBC realises that this information may take a little time to collate so would like this information sent by the end of August SECURITY SENSITIVE BIOLOGICAL AGENTS The Department of Health and Ageing is currently implementing a Security Sensitive Biological Agents Regulatory Scheme. This scheme builds on Australia s obligation under the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention and UN Security Council Resolution In Australia these regulations will support the National Health Security Act There are two lists of organisms or toxins that have been registered as Security Sensitive 2

3 Biological Agents. Tier 1 Agents will be regulated as of January Tier 2 Agents will be regulated from January Current requirements clearly delineate between samples that are suspected to contain the agent compared to those where the agent is clearly present. Therefore, we must report on those samples that have been tested and shown to contain the agent. Samples that have never been tested for the Agent are exempt under the current Scheme. Security Sensitive Biological Agents List No Tier 1 1 Abrin 2 Bacillus anthracis (Anthrax-virulent forms) 3 Botulinum toxin 4 Ebolavirus 5 Foot-and-mouth disease virus 6 Highly pathogenic influenza virus, infecting humans (such as 1918 pandemic Influenzavirus A and Influenzavirus A H5N1) 7 Marburgvirus 8 Ricin 9 Rinderpest virus 10 SARS coronavirus 11 Variola virus (Smallpox) 12 Yersinia pestis (Plague) No Tier 2 (agents of high security concern) 1 African swine fever virus 2 Capripoxvirus (Sheep pox virus and Goat pox virus) 3 Classical swine fever virus 4 Clostridium botulinum (Botulism; toxin-producing strains) 5 Francisella tularensis (Tularemia) 6 Lumpy skin disease virus 7 Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus 8 Salmonella Typhi (Typhoid) 9 Vibrio cholerae (Cholera) (serotypes O1 and O139 only) 10 Yellow fever virus (non-vaccine strains) Your IBC has been undertaking a survey to determine if UWA has any of these agent stored or used on our campuses. At this time UWA does not hold any of these agents and therefore UWA is NOT registered with the Department of Health and Ageing to hold these agents. 3

4 However, if you believe you will need these agents in the future you must contact the Biosafety Officer in the first instance to determine if your facility has the inrfrastructure to support storage and handling of the agent and whether the University will be placed on the register. Current arrangements are: Tier 1 Agents.will need to be housed at the Biomedical Research Facility, at Shenton Park as this is the only facility that UWA has that is able to meet the rigorous security requirements needed for these organisms. Responsible Officers have been nominated by the University. Contact the Biosafety Office for further information. Tier 2 Agents will be regulated from January 2010 and the Department of Health and Ageing are having a workshop in August where further details of the requirements to hold these Agents will be outlined. The Biosafety Office will be attending this workshop so that UWA will be able to advise the requirements to hold these agents if in the future we need to register for these Agents. For further information on this Regulatory Scheme go to: AUSTRALIAN QUARANTINE ISPECTION SERVICE Another National regulatory authority that researcher at UWA must comply with is the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS). If you are trying to import animal or human tissue or biological agents to Australia you will need to meet the requirements of AQIS. You will need to apply for an import permit and may also need access to a Quarantine Approved Premises. The first place to start is their website There are a number of Quarantine Approved Premises (QAP) at UWA. If you want to use one of these facilities you will need to negotiate this with the primary contact for each facility on a case by case basis. Please contact the Biosafety Office for further information. Quarantine Approved Premises (QAPs) at UWA Location Quarantine Approved Premises (QAP) No QE11 Animal House W0172 Level 5.2 CLIMA Shenton Park W1070 Level 6 *Civil Resource W1051 Level 5.1 Engineering *Earth and Geographical W0171 Level 5.1 Science 4

5 Please remember that there is also a State Quarantine Service. If you need more information relating to State Quarantine please go first to the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Foods web page then click on Quarantine in the list on the left hand side of the Homepage. I hope to have a section dedicated to AQIS in all future newsletters. So keep an eye out for this section. BIOSAFETY TIPS It often feels like there is a plethora of rules to follow in order to maintain a safe working environment particularly working with microorganisms. A recent article in Applied Biosafety clearly shows why it is important to remain vigilant with these rules of wearing and removing personal protective equipment before leaving the laboratory and to thoroughly wash your hand on leaving the laboratory one example was a laboratory director re-isolating laboratory stocks that included S. typhi and S. agona. After work the directors routine was to prepare dinner for his wife and two children. The wife was hospitalised and blood cultures yielded both S. typhi and S. agona; her infection was fatal. The son s cultures were positive for S. typhi but fortunately he survived. These isolates were later shown to identical to the laboratory stocks. The director did not become ill. 5