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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.
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(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.
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