In high-containment laboratories and animal facilities common practice is to
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decontamination procedure. In this study the focus was to evaluate the reliability of four
different commercial BIs in comparison to control microorganisms that are commonly used in
laboratories. Two different fumigation decontamination procedures were chosen:
formaldehyde (FA) and vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP). The control microorganisms were
Salmonella typhimurium, Brucella melitensis, Bacillus thuringiensis
spores, porcine parvovirus, equine rhinitis A virus, bovine viral diarrhea virus, and low
pathogenic avian influenza virus.
Exposure to formaldehyde caused a sufficient reduction of all the control microorganisms,
including B. thuringiensis spores, whereas only one of the four
commercial BIs was completely negative for growth. The VHP decontamination procedure was
not able to reduce any of the control microorganisms more than 4 log10, except
for the enveloped viruses, whereas the BIs with the lowest concentration (105
microorganisms per spore strip) indicated a satisfactory decontamination procedure.
These results indicate that commercial BIs could be unreliable as general indicators of
decontamination effectiveness. To ensure a reliable decontamination process, BIs have to
be evaluated for each protocol in parallel with the microorganisms used in the
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