Hello all,

I am working with mouse organs infected with Trypanosoma cruzi parasites. When animals are killed they are in the chronic stage of the disease, and their organs are extracted in Category 3 facility, where they are fixed with a solution of 4% PFA for 24 hours. Then they need to be further processed and I was wondering if that could be safely done outside of Category 3 facility.

I know I could technically take the organs, fix them and culture them but considering the 'stubbornness' of these parasites I should probably wait few weeks/months to make sure that they are definitely dead and the sample is no more infectious.

So I was wondering if there is already a proof in the literature that the fixation kills the parasites in the tissues? And if so, is it then safe to take the organs outside of Categority 3 facility and process them in the regular lab space?

Any help will be much appreciated.