Biological Hazards
Biological hazard is a broad term for all the possible hazards that may occur with animal or plant donations to your institution.
What are biological hazards?
Biological hazards take many forms.
Infectious diseases:
You can contract infectious diseases when dealing with freshly donated dead animals. These diseases include but are not limited to: salmonellosis, campylobactereriosis, leptospirosis, and yersiniosis.
They are not usually life threatening, but they are not nice to have, and they are transmissible.
It is difficult to determine if a dead animal brought to a museum is carrying a potential disease. The best practice is to treat all animals as potentially infected.
The animals could also pass on fleas. These also wouldn’t do you any real harm, but again, they are not nice to have.
**Plant and animal toxins: **
These include animal toxins from jellyfish, which can still sting you when they are dead. Similarly, plant toxins from New Zealand’s own ferocious nettle can sting even after it has been picked.
While animals that may be poisonous are usually known to us (such as wasps, jellyfish, and sea-snakes), we know less about plants. Treat all unfamiliar plants with caution.
Allergens:
People can be allergic, or become hypersensitised to biological materials, especially when working with fungi or moulds.
Sharp appendages:
Seabirds and fish may often have hooks still attached; these can be difficult to remove once they are in one of your fingers!
What do museums, galleries, libraries, and archives have to do if they have biological specimens?
Ensure that your staff are wearing appropriate protective clothing when dealing with dead animals and plants or moulds, including gloves, over-clothes such as laboratory coats or overalls, and a mask, ideally a P2/N95 mask.
How can institutions manage biological hazards in their collection?
Any donated dead animal can be frozen for two weeks to ensure that any diseases and parasites are either killed or their numbers reduced.
Museums that regularly collect or receive dead animals may also wish to have a biological hazards management plan.
Identifying your biological hazards should be fairly straightforward when compared to asbestos and heavy metals. Assessing the risks should also be straightforward since the worst-case scenarios are extremely unlikely i.e., staff member contracts salmonella and passes it to other staff. You should have procedures for receiving and disposal of specimens, and what to do if someone managed to cut themselves whilst performing a necropsy for instance.
Documenting training and reviewing procedures must also be part of a management plan.
