Biosafety Guidelines for Working with Small Mammals in a Field Environment

Abstract

Discussions of biosafety in the laboratory setting can be found in numerous texts, including other chapters in this book. Several published guidelines exist, with the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) (1) text serving as the general authority. There are a wealth of guidelines available for biosafety in the laboratory, but only a handful of references exist regarding biosafety considerations for individuals performing fieldwork, i.e., work done outside a laboratory with materials containing or potentially containing infectious agents, and there is no formal text describing structured risk assessment strategies for fieldwork that either incidentally or intentionally involves contact with zoonotic agents that have pathogenic potential. This text is meant to serve as a reference for existing guidelines, as well as a tool that can be used to help determine what risk levels exist for a planned field activity and how those risks may be mitigated. Protection of fieldworkers should be the prime focus of both supervisor and the workers themselves.