Compliance to the Biological Agents and Toxins Act and Adoption of Good Biosafety Procedures and Practices

Recent incident involving the transfer of “presumably inactivated” Bacillus anthracis samples from a BSL-3 laboratory at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to three BSL-2 laboratories serves as a timely reminder to all facility operators and researchers on the importance of carrying out a thorough inactivation process of high risk group biological agents, such as the First and Second Schedule biological agents under the Biological Agents and Toxins Act (BATA); before deemed safe to be handled in a lower containment facility.