Bio-Containment Laboratory

The containment laboratory, in principle, is an air tight building maintained under negative air pressure, which can prevent the escape of organisms to the environment through man, material, air and water. The concept fulfilling these requirements was developed in 1973, which was subsequently supported by several national and international organizations like UNDP, FAO, World Bank and ICAR. Government of India decided to have the laboratory under Indian Veterinary Research Institute, the premier veterinary research institute of the country. Of the several places considered, Bhopal was selected for construction of the BSL-4 laboratory. The basic requirements of primary and secondary containment barriers were considered during the designing stage. The primary containment barrier is provided in laboratory rooms where organisms are to be handled for research purpose. This takes care of the containment of pathogens in the work place itself. The secondary barrier is the building which plays a key role in preventing the escape of organisms to the environment.

This laboratory, first in Asia and tenth in the world was designed by international experts in consultation with the national experts. The experts from IVRI visited several European countries to find out a base model for the Indian laboratory. The Lelystad laboratory of the Netherlands was selected as the model (three floor design). The design of the laboratory was made by the UNDP/FAO consultants J.G. VanBekkum, C.J. Kooiman, G.J. Kaper Peter Mani and U. Kihm. The National Dairy Development Board was also involved in the designing stage, which subsequently constructed the laboratory at a cost of 22 crores on turnkey basis on the land provided by Government of Madhya Pradesh using ninety percent of indigenously developed structural engineering components. The long gestation period of 25 years finally got over and High Security Animal Disease Laboratory at Bhopal took its birth in 1998 and the fully functional bio-containment laboratory was dedicated to the nation on June 23rd, 2000 by the then Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Shri. Nitish Kumar. Since then, NIHSAD is in the forefront of research, diagnosis and control of exotic and emerging animal diseases according to the need of our nation.

The Infrastructure

NIHSAD has unique facilities to handle high-risk exotic animal pathogens without posing risk to the environment and the surrounding animal population. This laboratory is also suitable to handle recombinant DNA organisms including chimeras and hybrids having unknown pathogenicity and survivability in the host. The basic requirements of primary and secondary containment barriers were considered during the designing stage. The primary containment barrier is provided in the laboratory rooms where organisms are to be handled for research purposes. The primary barriers available in NIHSAD are biological safety cabinets (Class II B1 and Class II B2), isolators (Class III BSC), personal suits, respirators, laboratory coats, gloves, head, eye and face coverings.

The secondary barrier is the building, which plays a key role in preventing the escape of organisms to the environment. These mainly include walls and doors and air handling systems. The entire laboratory including the animal wing functions under gradient negative pressure (-50 pascals to –200 pascals) to prevent the possibility of escape of pathogens to the exterior. All solid and liquid waste is decontaminated by heat sterilization, gaseous sterilization or liquid disinfectant. The materials are removed to outside through airlocks, dunk tanks and barrier autoclaves.

The laboratory has been designed to function as Animal Biosafety level-4 (ABSL-4) in accordance with the international standards outlined in Federal register, USA and subsequent modifications by several laboratories. The working floor is encased between the first floor having services, supplies and air handling systems, and basement having facilities for sewage decontamination and carcass sterilization. Exhaust air is filtered through single or double High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters depending on the risk involved. The working floor has laboratory and the animal wings. The laboratory wing has separate rooms for disease diagnosis, immunology, pathology, vesicular diseases, biochemistry and molecular biology, recombinant DNA work, radioisotope handling, media preparation, cell culture, and pilot vaccine production facilities. Additional facilities include cold rooms, incubator room, washing room, storage facilities, first aid room, receiving and dispatch areas, and air locks.

The animal wing has facilities for housing large and small livestock, and laboratory animals. The animal rooms have separate air handling systems, which can prevent cross contamination among rooms and escape of pathogens to surrounding areas and the environment. For remote handling of experimental animals inoculated with hazardous pathogens, three isolators have been provided. In between the two rows of animal rooms, provision exists for post mortem facility with cold storage. This is the most contaminated zone in the animal wing. Hence it has highest negative air pressure. The post mortem room is connected to the clean area by an alkali wash room.

The containment zone of the laboratory complex (both laboratory and animal wing) starts with showers and ends with decontamination systems including barrier autoclaves, effluent treatment plant, dunk tanks etc. The plants and machineries installed for biosafety are automatic and programmable (PLC based) to avoid operational errors. Even human movement is controlled through computerized entry and exit control systems. It is mandatory for the workers to take shower while leaving the containment zone for which automatic shower system has been provided.

Outside the main laboratory, animal facilities are also available for quarantine of incoming animals (animal receiving shed) and their breeding and maintenance (animal holding shed) for regular supply of experimental animals. Supporting facilities for functioning of the laboratory are steam raising plant (boilers) for use in autoclaves, ETP and rendering plant, DM Plant, soft water plant, air conditioning plant, compressed air plant, DG sets, storage tanks for diesel and furnace oil and engineering workshop etc. To cater to daily needs of the workers, two canteens, one in the containment laboratory and the other outside the laboratory are available. For safe handling of pathogens in the laboratory biosafety guidelines are available.

The Design

• The lab is designed and constructed by experts so that nothing gets in or out that is not supposed to, not even something as tiny as a bacterium or virus.
• Three-floor design is adapted in building NIHSAD based on the model of BSL3+ lab at Lelystad, Holland. The first floor accommodates the facilities for air handling. The ground floor is the working laboratory and animal wing. The basement contains the decontamination facilities including effluent treatment plant.

Biosecurity

• The entry into the campus is restricted and allowed after thorough security check up and due permission.
• The entry into the laboratory is restricted to authorized research and support personnel only and is controlled by the password protected digital laboratory access control system.

Entry system

• Entry and exit into the laboratory is through PLC based shower controlled system with SCADA. The lab has 17 shower rooms fitted with air tight doors and inner and outer change rooms. The airlock in the shower is secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time

Inside the lab

• The lab has the primary and secondary containment facilities to protect not only the people working in the laboratory but also the environment surrounding the laboratory.

Primary Containment:

• Primary containment facilities/barriers, which include both techniques and equipments, provide a physical barrier between the worker and /or the environment and the hazardous material.
• The lab personnel are required to leave their clothes and other items behind in the outer change room and put on the laboratory clothes (even socks and underwear are provided) available in the inner change room before entering the lab. While leaving the lab, the lab dress has to be left in the inner change room and shower has to be taken as per norms and wear personal clothes in the outer change room.
• The primary barriers available in NIHSAD are Biological safety cabinets (Class II B1 and Class II B2), Isolators (Class III BSC), Personal suits, Respirators, Laboratory coats, Gloves, Head coverings and Eye and Face coverings.

Secondary Containment:

• Secondary barriers are facility related design features that separate the laboratory from non-laboratory areas or from the outside. They prevent the escape of organisms to the environment. These mainly include walls and doors and air handling systems.
• Air handling system supplies filtered, fresh, conditioned air and the exhausts the contaminated air from the laboratory after passing through High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters. The entire laboratory including the animal wing functions under gradient negative pressure (-50 pascals to –200 pascals) to prevent the possibility of escape of pathogens to the exterior.
• All solid and liquid waste is decontaminated by heat sterilization, gaseous sterilization, or liquid disinfectant. The materials are removed through airlocks, dunktanks and barrier autoclaves. Water/ liquid waste is removed after heat sterilization at 121 degree C for 30 minutes.