Short term visit with CRESA, Barcelona (SPAIN)

-  Level 3 biosafety confinements: E. Albina (virologist in Guadeloupe) travelled to Barcelona, 20-23 January 2014, Barcelona. Training was Given by D. Solanes (Services Director and animal welfare assessor & ethical committee of UAB) and Xavier Abad (Biosafety Officer and BSL3 Laboratory manager)

The objective of this training was to visit and learn in details the conditions for operating high containment facilities to assure minimal risks in terms of biosafety and biosecurity. This training was considered critical for the researcher (25 years of experience in working in a level 3 laboratory and animal housing) because he will be responsible of the new level 3 facilities settled in Guadeloupe in 2014-2015. Main outcomes of the training were the following :

• Reading and exchange on the documentation and quality system management of the CReSA facilities
• Visit of the facilities, including the systems for air filtration, waste decontamination (incineration, chemical treatment in tanks), autoclaves, surface and volume cleansing and decontaminationFurther communication was organized by E-mail later on.

In order to ensure that the new facilities in Guadeloupe are well-designed and operated, the technical description was sent to David Solanes for remarks and a member of CReSA high containment management team will travel to Guadeloupe to validate the control measures, when the BSL3 lab is functional. The second short term visit of CReSA expert should be organized early in 2016.