Animal Pathogens
Containment Requirements for Laboratories to be Licensed to Handle Arthropods Under the Specified Animal Pathogens Order 1998
Arthropod accommodation (vectors or parasites)
If the arthropod is vectoring a specified animal pathogen then the containment condition appropriate for that pathogen will be required in addition to those for the arthropod.
A. Structure
(a) Rearing unit
1. Rearing rooms should be physically separate from other arthropod rearing rooms, from animals which may be infected and from cultures of pathogens.
2. Rearing rooms should have an ante-room arranged so that 2 solid or screened doors, opening into the room and closing automatically, are provided. The ante-room must be large enough to allow one door to be closed before the other is opened. It should also contain an insect-killing device.
3. Internal wall surfaces should be readily washable (e.g. tiles) and light coloured to facilitate detection and destruction of escaped arthropods. Cracks and crevices should be avoided.
4. Air ducts, lights and plumbing fittings and any other openings into the room should be suitably screened or sealed to prevent escape of stray arthropods.
5. For easy cleaning to prevent build-up of residues where arthropods or pathogens may persist, light removable shelving rather than fitted units should be provided.
6. Recapture devices, such as u.v. light electrocution traps, or sticky traps for flying insects, should be provided to prevent the survival of escaped arthropods.
7. Waste disposal outlets must be provided with a fine-mesh sieve to ensure the retention of the smallest larvae or other stages of arthropods in waste water or washings, and permit safe disposal of all solid waste.
8. No crevices or structure (e.g. humidifier) should be able to contain unmonitored sources of open water in which insects such as mosquitoes may oviposit.
9. As an extra precaution, windows and other outlets of rooms leading off an insectary containing insects which may carry or cause disease, should also be screened against flying insects.
b) Experimental rooms and yards
1. Rooms and yards for experimental work with arthropod vectors or parasites should be separate from arthropod-reading accommodation, but should comply with the same basic structural requirements. If large animal hosts, e.g. cattle or sheep, are to be used, these may have to be modified, but this must be done in such a way as to ensure continued security.
2. Within the room, where arthropods carrying pathogens are concerned, fail-safe cages should be employed (e.g. use of safety cabinets for flying insects, or cages over trays of oil or glycerine for crawling arthropods).
3. Protective clothing should be provided as necessary to ensure against infection of operators by accidental arthropod bites, or abrasions, with face mask where necessary to avoid inhalation of pathogenic organisms in dust.
4. Special arrangements may be necessary for the sterilisation or disinfection of solid and liquid waste possibly contaminated by pathogens or infected arthropods.
5. Experimental yards for infested large animals (cattle and sheep) should be arthropod-proof and precautions should be taken against the spread of ectoparasites by birds and rodents. A moat containing disinfectant or acaricide may be necessary where crawling ectoparasites are involved.
B. Procedures
1. All stages of any arthropod should be killed before disposal in a sealed container or bag, using a suitable fumigant.
2. All larvae should be reared in a manner which will prevent the escape of emerging adults. Culturing procedure should be carefully timed where possible, so that the expected emergence date can be marked on cultures.
3. All arthropod cultures should be killed and disposed of as soon as their purpose has been completed.
4. If progeny are reared from virus-infected arthropods, these should be treated at all stages as infected individuals and kept in appropriate accommodation.
5. Small animal vertebrate hosts exposed to infected arthropods within the experimental rooms should be retained in screened accommodation and transferred to it in secure non-breakable containers, which must be sterilised after use.
6. Large animal hosts used for transmission experiments should be kept in screened accommodation, the arthropods involved being transported to and from the host in secure non-breakable containers, which must be sterilised after use.
7. When entering experimental yards containing livestock infested with specified arthropods (e.g. psoroptes mites, some ticks), experimental staff should wear special protective clothing which is left in a store at the entrance to minimise the risk of escape of non-enzootic pests.
Page last modified:
August 28, 2008