Ultra violet light in the Biosafety Cabinets fails to inactivate H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus in Poultry Feces

摘要

Owing to their public health implications, handling of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) viruses should be carried out in BSL–3 laboratory inside a biosafety class II cabinet along with recommended personal protection procedures. Treatment with UV light is known to have virucidal activity and is commonly used in most of the laboratories to disinfect the working table. The present study was carried out to check the efficacy of UV light to inactivate HPAI virus (H5N1) inside biosafety cabinet. HPAI virus gets excreted in high concentration in feces of infected birds and these samples are most commonly processed in biosafety cabinets for virus isolation. In this study, fecal samples, wet as well as dry, having known EID50 of virus were exposed to UV light to check its virucidal effect. The results indicated that UV light is unable to inactivate H5N1 virus even after 90 minutes of exposure in dry as well as wet feces. Thus there is a risk of improper disinfection of the biosafety cabinets if UV light alone is used as a source to disinfect the cabinet