History of the IVBW Group

The concept of the First International Veterinary Biosafety Workshop was jointly developed by Dr. Roger Breeze an Dr. Keith Murray. Both recognized most countries throughout the world share similar problems in operating veterinary containment facilities and conducting research on livestock and poultry diseases; namely, how to prevent the introduction of foreign animal diseases into the country, strategies for control and eradication of foreign diseases, the need to conduct research involving animals without release of viable agents into the environment, the necessity to provide a safe and healthy work environment for employees, prevent cross contamination among research materials and animals, and commonality involving biosafety issues and facility requirements to succeed in fulfilling their assigned mission. They summarized that presently, biosafety exchanges among veterinary laboratories dealing with similar issues were quite limited and existed principally between the United States and Australia, United States and Canada and Australia and England. Quickly, it became evident that other countries had similar experiences and a wider exchange among biosafety officers should prove very beneficial and productive to eliminate the need for each to develop the same programs.

It was evident that scientific exchanges occurred sporadically among countries conducting research on foreign disease agents to protect their respective livestock and poultry industries and to ensure a stable and hopefully expanding export market. Eventually, Dr. Murray and Breeze decided to consider joint sponsorship of a biosafety meeting and to request Mr. Manuel S. Barbeito and Dr. Tony Della- Porta to organize and conduct the First International Veterinary Biosafety Workshop for Biosafety Officers among veterinary laboratories who operate containment facilities. Ultimately, the first meeting was held on October 16-18, 1991 in Knoxville, Tenesse, USA. Participants from Australia, Canada, England, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the USA presented their institutes and discussed minimal common safety features.

The result of this first meeting was a paper with the title: Desirable features of biocontainment facilities for agricultural and research animals. Published in OIE Technical Bulletin (Rev. sci. Tech. Off. Int. Epiz., 1995,14(3) 873-887).

At the fifth workshop (Winnipeg, Canada 1996) the participants discussed the mission statements and goals of the group and facility maintenance and monitoring protocols and standard operating procedures. As a result, the mission statements and goals were sent in a letter to the president of OIE and a home page on internet on the Belgian Biosafety server was set up.

During the sixth workshop (Ames, USA 1998) topics were: Design, construction and operation of veterinary containment laboratories. A paper resulted with the title: “Veterinary containment laboratories: operation, design/construction and commissioning/certification.” and was submitted to OIE.