The principles and application of biosecurity in veterinary laboratories are described in detail in Chapter 1.1.02 of the OIE Terrestrial Manual for Diagnostics and Vaccines. These relate to the protection of humans handling potentially zoonotic organisms, biocontainment to prevent the escape of pathogens from the laboratory into the environment, and also best practice to prevent cross contamination of samples. Animal facilities include facilities where laboratory animals are kept, also covered in the above manual, as well as quarantine facilities and animal hospitals.

On completion of this module the reader should be able to understand and discuss the relevant definitions of biosafety and biosecurity and their meaning in the context of veterinary laboratories, the role of risk assessment in the laboratory setting, the measures applied in order to achieve the appropriate levels of biosafety and biosecurity in veterinary laboratories, the biosecurity and biosafety measures applicable to facilities where laboratory animals are kept, and the measures required to ensure that pathogens are not released during the transport of sample to and between veterinary laboratories.

1. Introduction
2. Definitions
3. Assessing the risk posed by pathogens in a veterinary laboratory setting
4. Achieving the appropriate level of biosafety
5. Achieving the required level of biosecurity
6. Laboratory animal facilities
7. Transport of samples to and between veterinary laboratories
8. References