Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=661c57ea-48ec-4b0f-8201-523feafd40d7
New lab could help prevent another outbreak
Containment Level 3 facility is state of art
Brian Lewis, The Province
Published: Sunday, December 14, 2008
"It'll look a bit like the starship Enterprise," Dr. Ron Lewis advised us as the small media group began a one-time-only tour of B.C.'s new $14-million high-tech Containment Level 3 laboratory in Abbotsford late last week.
B.C.'s chief veterinarian was right: We soon saw that the maze of high-technology equipment that supports and secures the three-storey laboratory does indeed give the place a spaceship feel. But this new facility, which is attached to the exiting Animal Health Centre and its Containment Level 2 labs, has been built to deal with the down-to-earth problem of agricultural animal diseases, some of which can jump the animal-human barrier and infect people.
The lab was built in direct response to the devastating 2004 outbreak of avian flu in the Fraser Valley, which nearly destroyed the region's poultry sector and cost B.C.'s economy about $600 million.
Critical response days were lost in 2004 because all the poultry samples had to be sent to Winnipeg, which at the time had the only high-security lab capable of handling the task.
"Having a Containment Level 3 lab in B.C. ensures we are fully prepared to identify and respond to incidents of animal disease faster and more efficiently," B.C. Agriculture and Lands Minister Stan Hagen told us. "This proactive step benefits animals, industry and the public."
Dr. Lewis explained the lab's economics this way: "The $14 million cost is equal to just one or two days' cost from an avian flu outbreak and the last one shut down our poultry industry for several months at a total cost of $400 to $600 million.
"So if we can shorten another outbreak even by a few weeks then we will have paid for this facility many times over."
So now the bulk of the high-security laboratory work in response to serious animal disease outbreaks in the Fraser Valley or elsewhere in B.C. can be performed in our own backyard in this state-of-the-art facility.
A quicker response to disease outbreak can also have a positive impact on agricultural trade since an outbreak like mad cow disease often causes trade partners to quickly shut their borders to our food exports.
As the tour taught us, not even the most microscopic virus or bacteria will be able to escape the confines of what is, in effect, a hermetically sealed facility.
With triple sealed and tightly-secured unbreakable windows and computer-controlled doors along with scrupulously filtered air and high-tech decontamination of water, waste, etc., this is one very secure laboratory. Inside air pressure, for example, is kept lower than outside air pressure so that if anything microbe has a mind to move, it will only move from the outside in, not from the inside out.
Nor has any expense been spared to keep the scientists who will work in the lab safe. Elaborate procedures are also in place to prevent the accidental outward transport of any nasty bug scientists happen to be working on.
While the basic building was completed in just under two years, the new equipment is still being installed and tested, Dr. Lewis explained.
But the project is going to come in about $500,000 under budget, he added, and the lab should be fully operational -- and off-limits to all but a handful of scientists -- by March.
New lab could help prevent another outbreak
Containment Level 3 facility is state of art
Brian Lewis, The Province
Published: Sunday, December 14, 2008
"It'll look a bit like the starship Enterprise," Dr. Ron Lewis advised us as the small media group began a one-time-only tour of B.C.'s new $14-million high-tech Containment Level 3 laboratory in Abbotsford late last week.
B.C.'s chief veterinarian was right: We soon saw that the maze of high-technology equipment that supports and secures the three-storey laboratory does indeed give the place a spaceship feel. But this new facility, which is attached to the exiting Animal Health Centre and its Containment Level 2 labs, has been built to deal with the down-to-earth problem of agricultural animal diseases, some of which can jump the animal-human barrier and infect people.
The lab was built in direct response to the devastating 2004 outbreak of avian flu in the Fraser Valley, which nearly destroyed the region's poultry sector and cost B.C.'s economy about $600 million.
Critical response days were lost in 2004 because all the poultry samples had to be sent to Winnipeg, which at the time had the only high-security lab capable of handling the task.
"Having a Containment Level 3 lab in B.C. ensures we are fully prepared to identify and respond to incidents of animal disease faster and more efficiently," B.C. Agriculture and Lands Minister Stan Hagen told us. "This proactive step benefits animals, industry and the public."
Dr. Lewis explained the lab's economics this way: "The $14 million cost is equal to just one or two days' cost from an avian flu outbreak and the last one shut down our poultry industry for several months at a total cost of $400 to $600 million.
"So if we can shorten another outbreak even by a few weeks then we will have paid for this facility many times over."
So now the bulk of the high-security laboratory work in response to serious animal disease outbreaks in the Fraser Valley or elsewhere in B.C. can be performed in our own backyard in this state-of-the-art facility.
A quicker response to disease outbreak can also have a positive impact on agricultural trade since an outbreak like mad cow disease often causes trade partners to quickly shut their borders to our food exports.
As the tour taught us, not even the most microscopic virus or bacteria will be able to escape the confines of what is, in effect, a hermetically sealed facility.
With triple sealed and tightly-secured unbreakable windows and computer-controlled doors along with scrupulously filtered air and high-tech decontamination of water, waste, etc., this is one very secure laboratory. Inside air pressure, for example, is kept lower than outside air pressure so that if anything microbe has a mind to move, it will only move from the outside in, not from the inside out.
Nor has any expense been spared to keep the scientists who will work in the lab safe. Elaborate procedures are also in place to prevent the accidental outward transport of any nasty bug scientists happen to be working on.
While the basic building was completed in just under two years, the new equipment is still being installed and tested, Dr. Lewis explained.
But the project is going to come in about $500,000 under budget, he added, and the lab should be fully operational -- and off-limits to all but a handful of scientists -- by March.