Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
transport vehicles. This serves to minimize the probability
of cross-contamination.
Often, a separate location is not available. In this case,
the quarantine area or room should be located on the
periphery of the core facility and should use separate
caging, equipment, and, ideally, personnel. Several small
rooms are preferable to one or two large rooms. This allows
the acceptance of sequential shipments of animals without
extending the quarantine period for earlier shipments and
will help contain an infectious disease outbreak to smaller
numbers of animals. If multiple shipments are placed into
one room, the quarantine period should begin when the last
shipment enters the room. Using smaller rooms also allows
multiple species to be housed in quarantine simultaneously
without comingling species in the same room.
The design of the quarantine area is important to further
limit cross-contamination. One favorable design is a dual-
corridor floor plan, also known as a clean-dirty corridor
system. In this system, there is a clean hallway, through
which staff prepare materials for use in animal rooms and
enter those rooms, and a dirty hallway where contaminated
material and personnel exits the animal rooms. The dirty
corridor should have easy, direct access to waste disposal
units to remove contaminated waste. Optimally, there
should be a dedicated locker room or shower facility so that
contaminated personnel can clean and change clothing.
However staff should at
authorities notified as required (
Chosewood and Wilson,
2009
).
Only authorized trained individuals should be allowed
access to quarantine. Ideally these individuals should only
work with animals in quarantine. If they must work in the
established colony, this should be done prior to entering
quarantine. Selection of personal protective equipment
(PPE) should be based on risk assessment and at
a minimum may include a disposable long-sleeved isola-
tion gown, face mask, eye protection (e.g. goggles or face
shield), gloves, and separate shoes or shoe covers. All PPE
should be discarded upon exiting the quarantine facility.
Based on the risk assessment, some facilities may require
the use of an N95 or similar respirator or a powered air
purifying respirator to mitigate the risk of TB exposure.
Animals should not be handled unless chemically
immobilized. An exception to this is the receipt of the
animal when the animal can be carefully transferred from
a nonsqueeze transport container to a cage without immo-
bilization. Individuals working in the quarantine area
should be included in a comprehensive occupational health
program as described earlier and in later chapters.
Duration of Quarantine
The duration of quarantine should be based on a risk
assessment of the source and recipient colonies. In part this
decision may be tempered by the value of the animals in the
colony to be protected and on the suspected risk of the
animals being acquired. A large breeding colony or a group
of animals that have undergone technically difficult
surgeries or have been on experimental studies for several
years is a very valuable resource and should be protected
carefully.
The legal federal minimum is 31 days for newly
imported NHPs, and this is generally performed at
a primary quarantine facility. It is desirable and highly
recommended for there to be a longer quarantine period and
ideally all animals should undergo a secondary quarantine
upon arrival at a new destination. The duration and
management of this quarantine is not codified like that of
primary quarantine, but there are general guidelines that
should be followed to reduce risks for animals already at
that facility and to protect personnel working with the
animals. A more suitable quarantine period is 45
least be required to remove
contaminated
personal
protective
equipment
before
entering shared corridors.
If a two-corridor system is not possible, then each
quarantine room should have an attached anteroom with
a counter and sink and the facility should have a central
locker room. The anteroom serves two purposes: it places
two doors between the animals and the rest of the facility,
providing extra security, and it provides a place to examine
and treat animals.
Additional design considerations include sweeps and
rubber seals for the doors, directional airflow, an autoclave
in the soiled corridor or in very close proximity for steril-
izing contaminated materials, separation of exhaust air
from the facility's air intake system, and traps on the floor
drains to contain and disinfect waste prior to disposing into
the sewer system. As for animal holding areas, The Guide
for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals describes other
specifications in detail (
ILAR, 2010
).
90 days
to allow time for adequate detection of underlying disease.
This will allow for underlying diseases to become more
obvious and give adequate time to properly diagnose and/or
treat any illnesses. For example, immunocompromised
animals may not respond appropriately to diagnostic tests
relying on a robust immune response (such as the TST) and
a longer quarantine time increases the likelihood of
recognizing underlying diseases in these animals.
e
Infection Control Procedures in
Quarantine
Animal Biosafety Level 2 facilities and procedures should
be adequate for most quarantine groups. If an outbreak of
potentially zoonotic disease occurs, Animal Biosafety
Level 3 practices should be initiated and the proper
