Sécurité médicale et santé mondiale
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Assay of Several Inactivation Steps on West Nile Virus and H7N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus Suspensions

Xavier Abad

Objectives: In any research laboratory, precautionary measures must be taken in order to reduce or eliminate the potential risk of accidental infection by biosafety level 3 (BSL3) pathogens, as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus (HPAI) or West Nile Virus (WNV). Appropriate virus inactivation procedures have to be set up to allow necessary further processing of specimens outside BSL3 facilities.

Methods: To study the elimination of WN and HPAI virus infectivity, the effect of different chemical and physical inactivation procedures on viral suspensions were investigated. A proper cell culture assay for each virus was performed to verify several treatments, which are commonly performed preceding transfer of materials outside of biocontainment, still allowing further investigations like sequencing or genome amplification.

Results: Chemical inactivation with AVL buffer (Qiagen), Trizol® Reagent or Phenol chloroform: isoamylic alcohol treatment, as well as physical treatment (heat at two temperatures and three contact times) reduced viral infectivity in the viral suspension below the detection limit.

Conclusion: Thermal treatments, but also Trizol® Reagent and AVL buffer (Qiagen), are suitable to produce noninfectious specimens for further use in molecular biology techniques