A quarantine vehicle sprays disinfectant at a pig farm in Anseong, 80 kilometers south of Seoul, on Aug. 12, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency launched on Thursday the process of outsourcing the design of the nation’s first shield-test facility that will be used in experiments related to the African swine fever (ASF) virus.
As a 3rd grade biosafety lab, the shield-test facility is a negative pressure-type special facility that will ensure safe experimentation about the infection of the ASF virus without the risk of virus leakage.
Shield-test facilities are needed to carry out experimentation on the ASF virus, but until now, there have been no such facilities available in South Korea.
The shield-test facility will be set up on the grounds of the agency situated in Gimcheon in North Gyeongsang Province.
The agency will spend 28.3 billion won (US$23.85 million) over the next four years to build the facility, which will have a floor space of 4,381 square meters.
The facility will consist of an ASF infection experiment lab, a support lab for virus culturing and infection experiments, and a general lab.
After being established, the facility will enable a variety of experiment-related tasks for the development, assessment and selection of ASF vaccines.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
