Animal Work Oversight 

Animal work can present unique hazards not found in standard biological laboratories. The co-application of BSL and ABSL is determined by a protocol-specific risk assessment. Field work with animals may also carry a biological component. For this reason, the Biological Safety Officer is an active member of TTU's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

Work involving animals in conjunction with potentially infectious materials or work involving animal pathogens must be approved by both the IACUC and the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC); IBC approval should be sought first as it is required for IACUC approval. Please see the respective Institutional Compliance Committee websites for additional details and forms.

Animal Facilities and Containment

Four biosafety levels are also described in the BMBL for activities involving infectious disease work with experimental vertebrates - ABSL1, ABSL2, ABSL3, and ABSL4. As with general biosafety and containment, they provide increasing levels of protection to personnel and the environment. In addition to ABSL levels described by the BMBL, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has developed facility parameters and work practices for handling agricultural pathogens (BSL3-Ag). Currently, TTU only has ABSL1 and ABSL2 containment facilities. 
 

 

BioSafety Topics

The links below provide specific information about the BioSafety & BioSecurity Program at Texas Tech.

Click the logo to Access Cayuse

Animals & Animal Materials

Arthropods & Vectors

Biological Risk Assessment

Biosafety & Biosecurity Home Page

Biosafety Cabinets and other Engineering Controls

Biosafety FAQs

Biosafety PI Responsibilities

Biosecurity

Biowaste Management

Cayuse FAQs

Clinical Biosafety

Decontamination

Emergency Response

Human & Non-Human Primate Materials

Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC)

IBC Protocol Registration

IBC Request for Clarification or Deviation

Laboratory Self-Survey

Microorganisms

Occupational Health Program (OHP)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Plants

Prions

Recombinant/Synthetic Nucleic Acids (r/s NAs)

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Toxins

Transporting Biological Materials

Working Safely with Biological Materials