Publications

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The Bio-Restoration of Major Transportation Facilities Domestic Demonstration and Application Program (DDAP) is a designed to accelerate the restoration of transportation nodes following an attack with a biological warfare agent. This report documents the technology development work done at SNL for this DDAP, which include development of the BROOM tool, an investigation of surface sample collection efficiency, and a flow cytometry study of chlorine dioxide effects on Bacillus anthracis spore viability.

In February of 2005, a joint exercise involving Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was conducted in Albuquerque, NM. The SNL participants included the team developing the Building Restoration Operations and Optimization Model (BROOM), a software product developed to expedite sampling and data management activities applicable to facility restoration following a biological contamination event. Integrated data-collection, data-management, and visualization software improve the efficiency of cleanup, minimize facility downtime, and provide a transparent basis for reopening. The exercise was held at an SNL facility, the Coronado Club, a now-closed social club for Sandia employees located on Kirtland Air Force Base. Both NIOSH and SNL had specific objectives for the exercise, and all objectives were met.

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Outbreaks of infectious agricultural diseases, whether natural occurring or introduced intentionally, could have catastrophic impacts on the U.S. economy. Examples of such agricultural pathogens include foot and mouth disease (FMD), avian influenza (AI), citrus canker, wheat and soy rust, etc. Current approaches to mitigate the spread of agricultural pathogens include quarantine, development of vaccines for animal diseases, and development of pathogen resistant crop strains in the case of plant diseases. None of these approaches is rapid, and none address the potential persistence of the pathogen in the environment, which could lead to further spread of the agent and damage after quarantine is lifted. Pathogen spread in agricultural environments commonly occurs via transfer on agricultural equipment (transportation trailers, tractors, trucks, combines, etc.), having components made from a broad range of materials (galvanized and painted steel, rubber tires, glass and Plexiglas shields, etc), and under conditions of heavy organic load (mud, soil, feces, litter, etc). A key element of stemming the spread of an outbreak is to ensure complete inactivation of the pathogens in the agricultural environment and on the equipment used in those environments. Through the combination of enhanced agricultural pathogen decontamination chemistry and a validated inactivation verification methodology, important technologies for incorporation as components of a robust response capability will be enabled. Because of the potentially devastating economic impact that could result from the spread of infectious agricultural diseases, the proposed capability components will promote critical infrastructure protection and greater border and food supply security. We investigated and developed agricultural pathogen decontamination technologies to reduce the threat of infectious-agent spread, and thus enhance agricultural biosecurity. Specifically, enhanced detergency versions of the patented Sandia decontamination chemistry were developed and tested against a few surrogate pathogens under conditions of relatively heavy organic load. Tests were conducted on surfaces commonly found in agricultural environments. Wide spectrum decontamination efficacy, low corrosivity, and biodegradability issues were addressed in developing an enhanced detergency formulation. A method for rapid assessment of loss of pathogenic activity (inactivation) was also assessed. This enhanced technology will enable rapid assessment of contamination following an intentional event, and will also be extremely useful in routine assessment of agricultural environments. The primary effort during the second year was progress towards a demonstration of both decontamination and viral inactivation technologies of Foot and Mouth virus (FMDv) using the modified SNL chemistry developed through this project. Lab studies using a surrogate virus (bovine enterovirus) were conducted using DF200, modified DF200 chemistry, and decontaminants currently recommended for use in heavily loaded organic, agricultural environments (VirkonS, 10% bleach, sodium hydroxide and citric acid). Tests using actual FMD virus will be performed at the Department of Homeland Security's Plum Island facilities in the fall of 2005. Success and the insight gained from this project will lead to enhanced response capability, which will benefit agencies such as USDA, DHS, DOD, and the agricultural industry.

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Chemical disinfection and inactivation of viruses is largely understudied, but is very important especially in the case of highly infectious viruses. The purpose of this LDRD was to determine the efficacy of the Sandia National Laboratories developed decontamination formulations against Bovine Coronavirus (BCV) as a surrogate for the coronavirus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in humans. The outbreak of SARS in late 2002 resulted from a highly infectious virus that was able to survive and remain infectious for extended periods. For this study, preliminary testing with Escherichia coli MS-2 (MS-2) and Escherichia coli T4 (T4) bacteriophages was conducted to develop virucidal methodology for verifying the inactivation after treatment with the test formulations following AOAC germicidal methodologies. After the determination of various experimental parameters (i.e. exposure, concentration) of the formulations, final testing was conducted on BCV. All experiments were conducted with various organic challenges (horse serum, bovine feces, compost) for results that more accurately represent field use condition. The MS-2 and T4 were slightly more resistant than BCV and required a 2 minute exposure while BCV was completely inactivated after a 1 minute exposure. These results were also consistent for the testing conducted in the presence of the various organic challenges indicating that the test formulations are highly effective for real world application.

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