§ 73.1 Definitions. For purposes of this part: *Administrator* means the Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or any person authorized to act for the Administrator.
*Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)* means the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
*Attorney General* means the Attorney General of the United States or any person authorized to act for the Attorney General.
*Biological agent* means any microorganism (including, but not limited to, bacteria, viruses, fungi, rickettsiae, or protozoa), or infectious substance, or any naturally occurring, bioengineered, or synthesized component of any such microorganism or infectious substance, capable of causing death, disease, or other biological malfunction in a human, an animal, a plant, or another living organism; deterioration of food, water, equipment, supplies, or material of any kind; or deleterious alteration of the environment.
*CDC* means Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Department of Health and Human Services.
*Conotoxins means* short, paralytic alpha conotoxins containing the following amino acid sequence X1CCX2PACGX3X4X5X6CX7, whereas: (1) C = Cysteine residues are all present as disulfides, with the 1st and 3rd Cysteine, and the 2nd and 4th Cysteine forming specific disulfide bridges; (2) The consensus sequence includes known toxins α-MI and α-GI (shown above) as well as α-GIA, Ac1.1a, α-CnIA, α-CnIB; (3) X1 = any amino acid(s) or Des-X; (4) X2 = Asparagine or Histidine; (5) P = Proline; (6) A = Alanine; (7) G = Glycine; (8) X3 = Arginine or Lysine; (9) X4 = Asparagine, Histidine, Lysine, Arginine, Tyrosine, Phenylalanine or Tryptophan; (10) X5 = Tyrosine, Phenylalanine, or Tryptophan; (11) X6 = Serine, Threonine, Glutamate, Aspartate, Glutamine, or Asparagine; (12) X7 = Any amino acid(s) or Des X; and (13) “Des X” = “an amino acid does not have to be present at this position.” For example if a peptide sequence were XCCHPA then the related peptide CCHPA would be designated as Des-X.
*Diagnosis* means the analysis of specimens for the purpose of identifying or confirming the presence or characteristics of a select agent or toxin provided that such analysis is directly related to protecting the public health or safety, animal health or animal products, or plant health or plant products.
*Entity* means any government agency (Federal, State, or local), academic institution, corporation, company, partnership, society, association, firm, sole proprietorship, or other legal entity.
*HHS* means the Department of Health and Human Services.
*HHS Secretary* means the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services or his or her designee, unless otherwise specified.
*HHS select agent and/or toxin* means a biological agent or toxin included in § 73.3.
*Information security* means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide— ( 1 ) Integrity, which means guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and includes ensuring information authenticity;
( 2 ) Confidentiality, which means preserving authorized restrictions on access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information; and
( 3 ) Availability, which means ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information.
*Occupational exposure* means any reasonably anticipated skin, eye, mucous membrane, parenteral contact, or respiratory aerosol exposure to select agents or toxins that may result from the performance of an employee's duties.
*Overlap select agent and/or toxin* means a biological agent or toxin listed in § 73.4 and 9 CFR part 121.4.
*Principal investigator* means the one individual who is designated by the entity to direct a project or program and who is responsible to the entity for the scientific and technical direction of that project or program.
*Proficiency testing* means the process of determining the competency of an individual or laboratory to perform a specified test or procedure.
*Recombinant nucleic acids* means: ( 1 ) Molecules that are constructed by joining nucleic acid molecules and that can replicate in a living cell or
( 2 ) Molecules that result from the replication of those described in paragraph (1) of this definition.
*Responsible Official* means the individual designated by an entity with the authority and control to ensure compliance with the regulations in this part.
*Security barrier* means a physical structure that is designed to prevent entry by unauthorized persons.
*Select agent and/or toxin* means unless otherwise specified, all of the biological agents or toxins listed in §§ 73.3 and 73.4.
*Specimen* means samples of material from humans, animals, plants or the environment or isolates or cultures from such samples for the diagnosis, verification, or proficiency testing.
*State* means any of the several States of the United States, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands of the United States, or any other territory or possession of the United States.
*Synthetic nucleic acids* means: ( 1 ) Molecules that are chemically or by other means synthesized or amplified, including those that are chemically or otherwise modified but can base pair with naturally occurring nucleic acid molecules (*i.e.,* synthetic nucleic acids) or
( 2 ) Molecules that result from the replication of those described in paragraph (1) of this definition.
*Toxin* means the toxic material or product of plants, animals, microorganisms (including, but not limited to, bacteria, viruses, fungi, rickettsiae, or protozoa), or infectious substances, or a recombinant or synthesized molecule, whatever their origin and method of production, and includes any poisonous substance or biological product that may be engineered as a result of biotechnology, produced by a living organism; or any poisonous isomer or biological product, homolog, or derivative of such a substance.
*United States* means all of the States.
*USDA* means the United States Department of Agriculture.
*Validated inactivation procedure* means a procedure, whose efficacy is confirmed by data generated from a viability testing protocol, to render a select agent non-viable but allows the select agent to retain characteristics of interest for future use; or to render any nucleic acids that can produce infectious forms of any select agent virus non-infectious for future use.
*Viability testing protocol* means a protocol to confirm the validated inactivation procedure by demonstrating the material is free of all viable select agent.
*Verification* means the demonstration of obtaining established performance (e.g., accuracy, precision, and the analytical sensitivity and specificity) specifications for any procedure used for diagnosis.
[70 FR 13316, Mar. 18, 2005, as amended at 77 FR 61110, Oct. 5, 2012; 82 FR 6290, Jan. 19, 2017]