Assessment of the bio-preparedness and of the training of the French hospital laboratories in the event of biological threat.

A national laboratory network 'Biotox-Piratox' was created in 2003 in France with the purpose of detecting, confirming and reporting potential biological and chemical threat agents. This network is divided into three levels: Level 1 is dedicated to the evaluation of risks (biological, chemical, radiological), to sampling and packing. Level 2 consists of university and military hospitals, who deal with biological specimens, and of environmental and veterinary laboratories, who deal with environmental and animal samples. Level 3 comprises national reference laboratories and the Jean Mérieux biosafety level (BSL)-4 laboratory in Lyon. This report presents the results of four bio-preparedness exercises to check critical points in the processing of samples. These exercises took place in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Each of them consisted of two parts. The first part was the identification of an unknown bacterial strain and its susceptibility to antibiotics used as a default in case of a bioterrorist event. The second part was the detection of Class III microorganisms, mainly by molecular techniques. The main lesson learnt in these exercises was that the key to successful detection of biological agents in case of a biological threat was standardisation and validation of the methods implemented by all the laboratories belonging to the network.

Biodegradation of fluoranthene by soil fungi.

A selection of 39 strains of micromycetes known as good degraders of polychlorinated aromatic compounds, mostly isolated from soil and belonging to various taxonomic groups, have been investigated for fluoranthene degradation. Toxicity assays, first evaluated on solid medium MEA, have not shown any toxicity of fluoranthene (1-100 mg.L-1) towards fungi. Whereas, consumption assays on a solid synthetic medium showed a toxicity at 100 mg.L-1. The degradation of fluoranthene (10 mg.L-1) was then investigated in a liquid synthetic medium for 4 days and evaluated by HPLC. Among the 39 strains tested, 18 degraded fluoranthene at 60% or more. Zygomycetes appeared to be the most efficient group (mean degradation: 90%). Among 18 performant strains, 10 had not yet been reported in the literature: Sporormiella australis, Cryptococcus albidus, Cicinobolus cesatii, Pestalotia palmarum, beauveria alba, Aspergillus terreus. Cunninghamella blakesleeana, C. echinulata, Mortierella ramanniana and Rhizopus arrhizus. Fluoranthene adsorption on fungi was very low for the strains which degraded well fluoranthene (mean adsorption: 4%). Whereas, some strains adsorbed it much more such as Colletotrichum dematium (47%) and Penicillium italicum (43%).