Managing Risk When Working with Orbiviruses with a Special Emphasis on Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease Virus

Risk assessment is the cornerstone of working safely with biological agents. The World Health Organization (WHO) Laboratory Biosafety Manual Fourth Edition Monograph on Risk Assessment provides stepwise guidance for completing a risk assessment, from information gathering and identifying hazards to evaluating the risks, developing, and implementing controls and review. To support the development of a mature safety culture within laboratories, it is important that all staff who handle biological agents understand the fundamentals of risk assessment and receive training in identifying hazards created by their work activities (or tasks) and understand how to mitigate the risks arising from carrying out that work. Any “competent” person may be involved in assessing the risks posed by carrying out an activity. Those closest to the work, who understand the details of the task being undertaken, should be involved in creating the risk assessment. The guidance in this chapter is not just applicable to biosafety professionals, laboratory scientists, or facility managers but can be used by any competent worker familiar with the activity being assessed. This chapter uses the guidance from the WHO to apply the principles of risk assessment to working with Epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV), using an example activity—virus isolation from EHDV test samples in cell culture.