§ 331.9 Responsible official. ( a ) An individual or entity required to register under this part must designate an individual to be the responsible official. The responsible official must: ( 1 ) Be approved by the Administrator or the HHS Secretary following a security risk assessment by the Attorney General.
( 2 ) Be familiar with the requirements of this part.
( 3 ) Have authority and responsibility to act on behalf of the entity.
( 4 ) Ensure compliance with the requirements of this part.
( 5 ) Have a physical (and not merely a telephonic or audio/visual) presence at the registered entity to ensure that the entity is in compliance with the select agent regulations and be able to respond in a timely manner to onsite incidents involving select agents and toxins in accordance with the entity's incident response plan.
( 6 ) Ensure that annual inspections are conducted of each registered space where select agents or toxins are stored or used in order to ensure compliance with the requirements of this part. The results of each inspection must be documented, and any deficiencies identified during an inspection must be corrected and the corrections documented.
( 7 ) Ensure that individuals are provided the contact information for the USDA Office of Inspector General Hotline and the HHS Office of Inspector General Hotline so that they may anonymously report any biosafety/biocontainment or security concerns related to select agents and toxins.
( 8 ) Investigate to determine the reason for any failure of a validated inactivation procedure or any failure to remove viable select agent from material. If the responsible official is unable to determine the cause of a deviation from a validated inactivation procedure or a viable select agent removal method; or receives any report of any inactivation failure after the movement of material to another location, the responsible official must report immediately by telephone or email the inactivation or viable agent removal method failure to APHIS or CDC.
( 9 ) Review, and revise as necessary, each of the entity's validated inactivation procedures or viable select agent removal methods. The review must be conducted annually or after any change in principal investigator, change in the validated inactivation procedure or viable select agent removal method, or failure of the validated inactivation procedure or viable select agent removal method. The review must be documented and training must be conducted if there are any changes to the validated inactivation procedure, viable select agent removal method, or viability testing protocol.
( b ) An entity may designate one or more individuals to serve as an alternate responsible official who acts for the responsible official in his/her absence. These individuals must have the authority and control to ensure compliance with the regulations when acting as the responsible official.
( c ) The responsible official must report the identification and final disposition of any select agent or toxin contained in a specimen for diagnosis or verification. ( 1 ) The identification of the select agent or toxin must be immediately reported by telephone, facsimile, or e-mail. The final disposition of the agent or toxin must be reported by submission of APHIS/CDC Form 4 within 7 calendar days after identification. A copy of the completed form must be maintained for 3 years.
( 2 ) Less stringent reporting may be required during agricultural emergencies or outbreaks, or in endemic areas.
[70 FR 13278, Mar. 18, 2005, as amended at 77 FR 61075, Oct. 5, 2012; 82 FR 6205, Jan. 19, 2017]