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

14 July 2014

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.