Abstract
Annual verification of an Animal Biosafety Level 3 (ABSL-3) facility's design and operational procedures is recommended by the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (5th edition) (BMBL) (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2009) and conducted by Iowa State University (ISU) Biosafety personnel by repeating initial verification testing. Annual verification ensures engineering and administrative controls are up to date and working at optimal levels. Although the BMBL does not address the specific verification procedures that should be performed, ISU developed protocols to meet the BMBL recommendation. This article reports the failure mode testing, which was essential to identify a failure in our ABSL-3 facility. During the first annual verification of an ABSL-3 facility, the failure mode tests showed air pressure reversals between spaces within the facility during three instances: failure of exhaust fan 1, failure of exhaust fan 2, and failure of fans 1 and 2. Upon investigation, it was discovered that multiple air valves within the facility had failed and were providing inaccurate information to the building automation system. This work demonstrated the value of failure mode testing in the verification procedures.