Abstract
Europe-wide activities to improve biosafety and biosecurity performed within the frameworks of the European Union (EU)-funded Joint Actions EMERGE and QUANDHIP led to the development of an Integrated European Checklist for Laboratory Biorisk Management (ECL).To better understand different approaches shaping biorisk management (BRM) systems on an operational level in high containment laboratories, the ECL was used to map the implementation of BRM in 32 high containment laboratories in 18 countries in Europe. The results suggest that the BRM elements referring to standard microbiological working practices and the handling of infectious material were fulfilled particularly well. The elements safety exercises involving internal and external emergency responders, and appropriate decommissioning plans were not fulfilled particularly well. BRM in Biosafety Level (BSL) 4 laboratories handling Risk Group (RG) 4 viruses appear to vary among each other less than BSL3 laboratories handling RG 3 bacteria. It is important to agree on comparable regulations in Europe as high containment laboratories are indispensable for a safe, quick and effective response to public health threats. As high containment laboratories may also present a public health risk it is crucial to have robust BRM on organisational and operational levels.
Highlights
Emerging and re-emerging pathogens are of public health significance, especially those agents classified as Risk Group (RG) 3 and 4 which have the potential to cause public health emergencies, e.g. Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, filoviruses or arenaviruses
We found that especially new facilities are separated from external building boundaries (6/25 BSL3 laboratories; 1/7 BSL4 laboratories)
According to our results, which show that biorisk management (BRM) elements are fulfilled differently in all laboratories (Table 2), and that BSL3 laboratories from the same country considerably differ in their implementation of BRM elements, it can be assumed that the variations in BSL3 laboratories in one country are comparably diverse to variations observed in laboratories of different countries
Summary
Emerging and re-emerging pathogens are of public health significance, especially those agents classified as Risk Group (RG) 3 and 4 which have the potential to cause public health emergencies, e.g. Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, filoviruses or arenaviruses These agents pose a high risk for individuals and communities, causing severe to lethal disease in humans and animals depending on the infection route. In the framework of the Joint Action QUANDHIP (Quality Assurance Exercises and Networking on the Detection of Highly Infectious Pathogens) [14] funded by the European Union (EU) Health Programme 2014–2020, an additional tool was developed: the Integrated European Checklist for Laboratory Biorisk Management (ECL) [15] This checklist, which is freely available (w w w.emer ge.r k i.eu/Emer ge/EN/Content/Quandhip/ quandhip_node.html) [14], allows high containment laboratories to have an external or internal evaluation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
