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IP: Is Russian Gene Anthrax a Weapon?
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 14:21:45 -0500
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 11:00:39 -0500 To: TERRORISM () mediccom org From: John Young <jya () pipeline com> The New York Times, February 14, 1998, p. A4. Gene-Engineered Anthrax: Is It a Weapon? A new Russian germ may be able to defeat U.S. troops' vaccine. By William J. Broad In an apparent first, Russian scientists have genetically engineered a new form of anthrax that may be able to defeat the vaccine that American troops will soon get to protect them against such biological agents, American scientists said yesterday in interviews. Since the advent of genetic engineering in the late 1970's and early 1980's, biological warfare experts have worried about the technique's possible use in making deadlier germs that could turn warfare into a more pernicious art. But until now, no one has admitted taking the step of engineering a new pathogen that could be a potential military weapon. Col. Gerald Parker, commander of the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md., said in an interview that experts "need to evaluate it" to learn whether the advance is theoretical or practical, and whether it could sidestep the American anthrax vaccine. "It's one thing to do this in the lab," he said. "But it's a whole different thing to produce it in large quantities to be used as a weapon. That would be very difficult." Officials at the institute said the Defense Department was working through diplomatic and other channels to get the Russians to share the new organism with American experts. "This is the first indication we're aware of in which genes are being put into a fully virulent strain," said Col. Arthur Friedlander, chief of the bacteriology division at the institute. The Russian scientists, based in Obolensk, near Moscow, work at the State Research Center for Applied Microbiology. They published their research on the anthrax organism in the December issue of Vaccine, a British scientific journal. The new germ reportedly contains two non-anthrax genes that may alter the way in which it causes disease. Anthrax normally afflicts animals like cattle and sheep, but it can cause severe illness and death in humans who inhale large doses, making the anthrax bacillus a weapon of potentially horrifying dimensions. But it is very hard technically to develop biological arms that kill on a large scale, and do so without also hurting the aggressor. American experts say a benign explanation for the research is that the Russians are trying to improve their own anthrax vaccine, which uses live germs. But the experts add that the strides can aid offense as well as defense, as is the case with most advances in the science of germ protection. "They genetically engineered a strain that's resistant to their own vaccine, and one has to question why that was done," said Colonel Friedlander. "That's the disturbing feature here." Russia is a signatory to the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, banning the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons. But in 1992, President Boris N. Yeltsin admitted that a deadly accident at Sverdlovsk in 1979, in which anthrax spores were released into the air, had been caused by "our military developments." For years, scientists have debated how significant the opening of the gene-warfare door would be, with some saying it foreshadows a new age of terror and others playing it down. The skeptics say raw nature has already produced so many germs that haunt humans in horrifying ways that warriors have no reason to create new ones. "Gene Wars" (Beech Tree Books, Morrow, 1988), by Charles Piller and Dr. Keith R. Yamamoto, a molecular biologist, argued the opposite, saying the field threatened to usher in a new kind of martial insanity. The report of a genetic enhancement to anthrax comes on the heels of scientific evidence published this month that Russian germ warfare experts in the 1970's created a blend of at least four natural strains of anthrax bacilli, as if the mix was devised to overwhelm a vaccine. The lead Russian researcher in the Vaccine report, Dr. A. P. Pomerantsev, shared preliminary information about his team's work last fall when he was in the United States collaborating with American scientists on a different project. "The evidence that they presented suggested that it could be resistant to our vaccine," Colonel Friedlander said. "We need to get hold of this strain to test it against our vaccine. We need to understand how this new organism causes disease, and we need to test it in animals other than hamsters that the Russians used." Yesterday a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the Vaccine report, but it seems likely that, if possible, the new organism will be studied intensely to see if it can defeat the American vaccine. That vaccine was given to about 150,000 troops during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. This summer, the Defense Department plans to begin a campaign of administering it that eventually is to reach all 2.4 million American military personnel. [End] ====================================================================== To post a new message to the list, send E-mail terrorism () mediccom org. To unsubscribe, send E-mail to listserv () mediccom org with the following text in the message body: UNSUBSCRIBE terrorism To send a message to the list administrator, send E-mail to churton.budd () mediccom org. ======================================================================
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- IP: Is Russian Gene Anthrax a Weapon? Dave Farber (Feb 14)