International Veterinary 
Biosafety Workgroup

Preconditions

We have in our International Veterinary Biosafety Group members from different agencies with different responsibilities and skills like directors, biosafety officers, biocontainment engineers and others. The working group is open to others with a strong interest in veterinary biosafety issues in the context of large animal facilities, however, general biosafety concerns are discussed in the ABSA biosafety society and on the internet in the BIOSAFTY listserve program. We also want to prevent "conference tourism" to our workshops. The grouping has in the past facilitated the exchange of information and advice and the workshops allowed like people to meet face-to-face and to establish close personal and professional relationships which is perhaps the major virtue of our activities.
 

Membership policy

Instead of having a formal definition based on official goals and missions of national agencies - which might be difficult to compare - the following pracmatic rules are defined:

  • Regular members are of agencies with regulatory influence and national responsibility in list A disease control and individuals working in large animal high containment facilities.
  • Associates or non-voting members are all others with a strong interest in large animal high containment facilities.
  • In order to align the direction of our activities with the commonality of the interests and concerns of the major facilities having national veterinary biocontainment responsibilities a small executive group through whom the policy is administered is composed of one member of each of the following high containment facilities: AAHL in Geelong, Plum Island and Ames in the USA, IVI in Switzerland, CISA in Valdeolmos, Pirbright in UK, IASH in Lelystad, The Netherlands, BFAV in Tübingen, Germany and the NCFAD in Canada.

    Last modified May 12 2007. 
    Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.