Biosafety and Biosecurity Policy (2024)

FAQs

What is biosafety and biosecurity summary? ›

Whereas biosafety aims at protecting public health and environment from accidental exposure to biological agents, biosecurity deals with the prevention of misuse through loss, theft, diversion or intentional release of pathogens, toxins and any other biological materials.

Biosafety provides policies and practices to prevent the unintentional or accidental release of specific biological agents and toxins, whereas biosecurity provides policies and practices to prevent the intentional or negligent release of biological materials or the acquisition of knowledge, tools, or techniques that ...

Biosafety and biosecurity ensures that risks associated with research or development of harmful biological agents are minimized, thus protecting the health of humans and animals involved in such activities. This is important to prevent infection or exposure that could endanger their life and health.

The basic objective of a biosafety program is the containment of potentially harmful biological agents. The purpose of containment is to reduce or eliminate exposure of laboratory workers, other persons, and the outside environment to potentially hazardous agents.

Biosafety is a framework that describes the use of specific practices, training, safety equipment, and specially designed buildings to protect the worker, community, and environment from an accidental exposure or unintentional release of infectious agents and toxins.

These three components come under three guiding principles of biosecurity, which are: bio-exclusion – the prevention of outside agents from entering a farm or other facility and spreading among the animal population; bio-management – the way in which disease spread is prevented within the farm or facility including the ...

The four biosafety levels are BSL-1, BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4, with BSL-4 being the highest (maximum) level of containment. There are additional specific rules and designations for animal research (ABSL), agricultural research (BSL-Ag), and other types of research.

Biosecurity has three major components: Isolation, Traffic Control, Sanitation.

What is another word for biosafety? ›

Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Biorisk Management are three terms that are often used interchangeably but in fact they have different meanings and implications.

Biosecurity examples: Biosecurity measures include quarantining new animals, disinfecting equipment and vehicles, and restricting access to agricultural fields. Biosecurity measures in microbiology labs include the implementation of biosafety levels and the routine sterilisation of lab equipment.

Biosafety guidelines are a set of policies, rules, and procedures necessary to observe by personnel working in various facilities handling microbiological agents such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, prions, and other related agents and microbiological products.

In domesticated animal farming, maintaining the animals' sterility and ensuring the production of safe food are the two main objectives of biosecurity (Roberts, 2015).

A biosecurity risk is anything that could increase the impacts of pests, diseases, weeds or contaminants on the economy, environment or community. The risk may not directly impact you and your property, but may impact someone else. By law, you must still take steps to address these risks.

“Biosecurity is the management of risks to the economy, the environment, and the community, of pests and diseases entering, emerging, establishing or spreading.” Biosecurity is a holistic term that includes policies and regulations to protect humans, food, agriculture, and the environment from potential biological ...

The BIOSECURE Act has two core areas of focus: First, the legislation would prohibit federal agencies from directly procuring services from or funding (by federal loan or grant) a “biotechnology equipment or service” from a “biotechnology company of concern” (defined below).

Biosecurity is defined as the strategic approach to analyzing and managing risks to human heath, animal and plant life and the associated risks to the environment. It is based on recognition that hazards have the potential to be deliberately or accidentally misused resulting in harm.

A biosecurity program rests upon five pillars: inventory process, physical security, a personal reliability program, transport programs, and information security processes. A biosecurity program must have an overall program management that supports the five pillars.