National Research Centre on Equines

Transcription

[Music plays] CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory known as AAHL is a frontline defence helping to protect Australia from the threat of exotic and emerging animal diseases. This national facility has developed a significant international reputation as one of the world’s finest animal bioscience research laboratories, and it’s the most sophisticated laboratory in the world for the safe handling and containment of infectious microorganisms. Opened in Geelong, Victoria in 1985, the laboratory was the technically complex of its time. AAHL’s reputation for engineering excellence continues today with the recent implementation of award winning contemporary automation and control system technologies. Research is undertaken here to develop new diagnostic tests and other decision support tools for limiting disease spread and for the creation of new vaccines and treatments to protect animals and humans from disease. The threat that infectious diseases pose to human, animal and environmental health is a global concern. In the last 20 years some 30 new and highly infectious diseases have been identified including Hendra virus, SARS, Ebola and HIV Aids. Many of these diseases don’t have a cure. (Prof Martyn Jeggo) Four years ago the Australian government recognised the need to invest in research infrastructure across Australia and set aside half a billion dollars for this. One key area for the government is biosecurity, and the Australian Animal Health Laboratory is the largest national facility in this area and so it was agreed there would be investment to improve this facility. CSIRO used the funding to build a state of the art facility that would permit research scientists from across Australia to work in a biosecure and a biosafe environment with the nastiest bugs that affect our wildlife, our domestic animals and humans. (Narrator) Located with AAHLs advanced high biocontainment facility is the AAHL Collaborative Biosecurity Research Facility known as the ACBRF. It’s the most advanced facility of its kind in the world and provides Australia with a unique opportunity to lead biosecurity research globally. As well as undertaking the identification and characterisation of viruses, this new facility will be used to investigate the origin, development and treatment of animal and zoonotic diseases or diseases that are harmful to both people and animals. [Music plays] [Clicking sound] (Narrator) Before entering the laboratory scientists pressurise the fully encapsulating positive pressure suit, the latest model available to scientists and check both air supplies to ensure their equipment and lifelines are operating efficiently. Once inside, they can then move around freely. The ACBRF provides scientific staff with an opportunity to work with small laboratory animals including insects inside three spacious animal rooms. There’s also an anteroom for equipment including freezers and centrifuges and a large general laboratory. This general laboratory is unique as it allows up to 12 scientists to work at any one time within the specialised space on research of national importance at the highest level of biosecurity. It has five independent workstations and features state of the art equipment including Class 2 biological safety cabinets and incubators. The ACBRF also incorporates the AAHL Biosecurity Microscopy Facility a specialist microscopy service that enables fundamental research with infectious disease agents that require the highest levels of containment. The control room overlooks the imaging facility where scientists can communicate with staff and remotely control the microscope. (Dr Alex Hyatt) One area that excites me about this new PC4 lab is that for the first time in the world we’ll be able to use live infectious viruses to infect living cells. We will be able to use microscopes to record the virus attaching to the cell, entering the cell, replicating and leaving the cell. In addition, we’ll be able to look at the impact of the virus on the cell and transmit those images in real time to researchers here at AAHL within Australia and overseas. (Narrator) Although the laboratory is in the heart of AAHL’s secure area staff aren’t isolated from other parts of the facility or the outside world. They can communicate with each other, make contact with the central monitoring officers as well with scientists outside the laboratory at any time. All activities within the facility are under 24 hour closed circuit TV surveillance. This footage can be viewed over a secure web connection and interfaced into a new communication system called the Biosecurity Collaboration Platform. AAHL’s original suit room will be used as a secondary work area when the large PC4 laboratory is decontaminated and shut down for maintenance. This is a mandatory requirement and will occur on an annual basis. In building this laboratory the CSIRO has worked and continues to work closely with regulators to ensure the new facility meets all the current requirements set by the Australian Government’s Office of the Gene Technology Regulator and the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, all done as part of the CSIRO’s commitment to operating a safe and secure laboratory. The ACBRF complements existing facilities within AAHL’s biocontainment area, for example the large animal facility is the most sophisticated microbiologically secure research facility of its kind in the world. It provides the CSIRO with the ability and flexibility to work with any animal species and pathogens and the highest level of biosecurity. The ACBRF also offers a specialised training facility to help scientists gain experience and confidence working in conditions that mimic a PC4 environment. This facility is designed to avoid the distractions, delays and most importantly, the risks associated with training in an active workspace. Everything within the ACBRF is treated before it leaves. The air is filtered, all sewerage is heat treated and solid waste is incinerated. As part of this biocontainment procedure, all staff leaving the laboratory must complete a seven minute chemical wash before removing and leaving behind their suit and laboratory clothes. They must then shower out through an airlock. The shower process is then repeated in order to exit the secure area. Once outside the laboratory staff must not have contact with livestock animals for seven days. In the past two decades the CSIRO has been at the forefront of the discovery and control of several significant emerging infectious diseases including Equine Influenza, Hendra virus and SARS. The laboratory continues to be a partner in numerous research collaborations both nationally and internationally. The CSIRO welcomes and encourages the international research community to work within the ACBRF on a marginal cost recovery basis to undertake projects of global importance. (Prof Martyn Jeggo) This facility can make a real difference to Australian biosecurity and to the health of our people, our livestock and indeed our environment. [Music plays]