Decontamination Of Laboratory Animal Research Rooms Using Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP®)

Walter Reed Army Institute for Research is a U. S. government laboratory facility located in the Washington D.C. area. Construction of the state-of-the art facility began in 1994. The institute houses an animal research facility consisting of over 15 animal rooms, designed for several different types of laboratory research animals, a BL2 lab and a BL3 lab.

The animal rooms as well as equipment and animal cages periodically require decontamination; especially before housing a new group of animals or in the event of suspected contamination. The rooms have been designed and constructed to use VHP for decontamination.

The focus of this case study is cycle development and decontamination testing of two animal rooms having volumes of 1750 ft3 (50 m3) and 1875 ft3 (53 m3) using a VHP 1000 Biodecontamination System. The study was completed in April 2001.