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Bacteria and Rickettsia |
Disease name | Fungi |
Plant Pathogens |
Livestock Agents| Toxins |
Viruses | Secondary
agents | Biological Agent Code Names
| Disease Name | Teschen disease |
|---|---|
| Synonyms |
|
| Agent Type | Virus |
| Target | Livestock (swine) |
| Related Agents | None |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
Yes |
| Comments | Teschen disease is highly infective and can spread rapidly through a
swine herd killing 70-90% of its members, especially piglets under 3 months.
Talfan disease is caused by the same virus, but it is milder in its
effects. The disease was first described after an outbreak in the village
of Teschen in Czechoslovakia in 1929 and it is spread throughout Central Europe
and is also found in Madagascar. The disease is first seen as fever, anorexia and depression. The neurological symptoms become more severe including:
If an animal survives, it may excrete the virus for weeks and the virus itself can survive outside a host for several weeks in addition to that. It is often transmitted by improperly prepared swill. Early diagnosis can be complicated because of the similarity of the disease to a number of others, including: Vaccines are available and a combination of vaccination, quarantine and ending of swill feeding can be used to control an outbreak. |
| Disease Name | Tetanus |
|---|---|
| Synonyms | Lockjaw |
| Agent Type | Toxin |
| Target | Humans |
| Related Agents | |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
Yes |
| Comments | Tetanus toxin is the primary agent responsible for the paralyzing disease
tetanus caused by infection with the common soil bacterium Clostridium
tetani. The disease and the effects of the toxin are characterized by
its popular name of lockjaw. The toxin cause muscles to spasm to strongly
that the mouth cannot be opened. As the disease progresses the spasms
spread to all of the muscles. The pain from spasming can be intense and the
spasms themselves can be intense enough to tear muscle and break major bones.
Death comes when the toxin prevents proper breathing. Victims die with bodies
bent into an arc. The disease was extremely common on the battlefields in the days of the horse. The organism survives in the digestive tract of the animal and when a horse was killed by cannon fire or was otherwise disembowelled, the contents of the gut were sprayed upon men with open wounds that could easily become infected. The agent survives in soil throughout the world and remains a problem to those who work or play on the land. However, effective antitoxins and toxoids are available for those at risk and the disease is completely avoidable and treatable in developed countries. The agent can be recovered from just about any soil and the toxin may be attractive to terrorists, even as a crude preparation. The toxin molecule is similar to botulinus toxin in its structure and mechanism of action but is also somewhat different. Botulin acts at the junction between a nerve and a muscle, but tetanus toxin acts on the junction between the nerve and the nerves of the spinal cord that pass impulses from the brain. Botulin blocks the nerve impulse that stimulates the muscle leading to a limp paralysis. Tetanus toxin blocks the pathway that sends out signals ending contractions resulting muscle spasms leading to extreme rigidity. |
| Disease Name | Vesicular stomatitis |
|---|---|
| Synonyms | None |
| Agent Type | Virus |
| Target | Livestock |
| Related Agents | None |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
Yes |
| Comments | Vesicular stomatitis virus appears to be included in warning lists largely
because of its nuisance value rather than its destructive effects. It resembles both
foot-and-mouth disease and swine fever in its symptoms, most importantly the development
of vesicles (blisters) around the mouth and chest of the animal. There is also
a high fever and a loss of appetite and weight. Deaths are unusual. It can infect
horses, mules, cattle, swine, deer and humans (in whom it causes an influenza-like
fever and can cause a painful conjunctivitis). The disease is endemic in the Americas and effective vaccines are available in these areas. The disease can be treated by attending to symptoms and there is no requirement to slaughter infected animals, although they must be separated from healthy animals as the disease is most often spread by direct contact. Contaminated buildings can be treated with common disinfectants (bleach, phenols, formalin). |
| Disease Name | None |
|---|---|
| Synonyms |
|
| Agent Type | Toxin |
| Target | Humans |
| Related Agents | |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
Yes |
| Comments | Viscumin is a lectin from mistletoe that is largely responsible for its toxicity. It is comparable in toxicity to ricin and acts by the same mechanism. The plant is widespread and readily available and there is research interest in tthe use of viscumin in the treatment of some diseases as it may be usable in immunotoxins. |
| Disease Name | None |
|---|---|
| Synonyms |
|
| Agent Type | Toxin |
| Target | Humans |
| Related Agents | |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
Yes |
| Comments | Volkensin is a lectin from Adena volkensii (the kilyambiti plant) that is comparable in toxicity to ricin and that acts by the same mechanism (a ribosome-inactivating protein). The plant is a relatively unattractive and toxic succulent plant found in Africa that appears to be of little interest. However, it has proven useful as a research reagent in neurology because of its ability to be taken up and transported by certain types of nerve. There may be pressure to develop commercial sources for the research community. |
| Disease Name | West Nile encephalitis |
|---|---|
| Synonyms |
|
| Agent Type | Virus |
| Target | Humans |
| Related Agents | |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
No |
| Comments | West Nile virus is one of the most widespread members of the Japanese
encephalitis virus group of virus in the Old World that has recently
begun to gain a foothold in the Americas having become established on
the Eastern seaboard in the New York area 1999-2000 and found as far west
as Ohio and as far south as Georgia in Florida by the summer of 2001.
The virus causes a severe meningoencephalitis or inflammation of the brain and spinal cord that can be deadly to the elderly and infirm. Once established in the victim it can cause inflammatory problems in all of the major organs although neurological symptoms (tremor, headache, abnormal reflexes) accompanied by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and a rash are commonest. Long-term effects are seen in patients who recover. The incubation period is 3-5 days and it may take another week to run its course. Like other members of the family, WNV is transmitted to humans by mosquitos although can also be transmitted by ticks and fleas that take blood meals. The virus uses birds as an intermediate host and although generally not causing disease in birds it can kill crows and the appearance of dead crows has been an indicator of the spread of the disease in the United States. The only other animal that is reliably infected by the virus is the horse. The virus may also be one of those notorious for being obtained by Iraq from American stock centers as it embarked on its biological warfare program. |
| Disease Name | Bacterial leaf blight of rice |
|---|---|
| Synonyms | Rice leaf streak |
| Agent Type | Bacteria |
| Target | Rice |
| Related Agents | None |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
Yes |
| Comments | Bacterial rice blight is a common and destructive disease of rice in Asia. It first
appears as moist wet brown spots on the leaves of the plant. They expand and coalesce into
stripes that may exude a white liquid. Leaves die from the tip down and rice grains
may also be affected. At best the disease limits growth and crop yield. At worst it can
kill plants.
The disease is spread by wind and it is most common in rainy damp weather. Watchfulness should be increased under such conditions. The bacterium can overwinter on seed and crop residue. Control is by crop rotation and treatment of seed and use of disease-free seed. |
| Disease Name |
|
|---|---|
| Synonyms | None |
| Agent Type | Bacterium |
| Target | Vines,fruit and timber trees |
| Related Agents | None |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
Yes |
| Comments | Xylella fastidiosa is a bacterium that lives in the xylem of plants that
is crucial for the movement of liquids and nutrients. As they block transmission of
water the plant begins to die. This starts at the edges of leaves and progresses
into the central tissues of the plant with the roots also being affected. The disease is transmitted rapidly by insects known as sharpshooter leafhoppers and also inadvertently by grafting. There is no response to the disease beyond destroying affected plants and planting disease-free stock. |
| Disease Name | Yersiniosis |
|---|---|
| Synonyms | None |
| Agent Type | Bacterium |
| Target | Humans |
| Related Agents | |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
No |
| Comments | Yersiniosis is best known as a severe food poisoning that appears with symptoms of gastroenteritis with diarrhea (watery to bloody), vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. The symptoms can be mistaken for appendicitis. This form of the disease often clears itself out with only supportive care (fluids, electrolytes) but the pathogenic serotypes can also infect wounds and the urinary tract. A complication that can arise is a form of arthritis. The organism is much more robust than the plague bacillus and is widespread in nature but it is also less aggressive: the actual infective dose appears to be quite high (several million cells) and it is most commonly obtained from contaminated food that has been improperly stored or handled. |
| Disease Name | Yersiniosis |
|---|---|
| Synonyms | None |
| Agent Type | Bacterium |
| Target | Humans |
| Related Agents | |
| Listed by the Australia Group |
Yes |
| Comments | Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolitica are almost identical
and are often treated as such by microbiologists and infection by Y. pseudotuberculosis
runs the same course as that described above for Y. enterocolitica.
There is an intriguing wrinkle to the story of Y. pseudotuberculosis that comes from the former Soviet biological weaponeer Ken Alibek. In his book "Biohazard" he talks about using Y. pseudotuberculosis as a host to make a toxin that affects myelin, the insulating sheath around nerves that is destroyed in a number of progressive neurological diseases such as motor neuron disease. Some strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis produce an antigen, the M1 antigen, that stimulates the body to produce an antibody that attacks myelin leading to its destruction. The case that Alibek tells us of may have been one of manipulating the bacterium to increase its output of M1. |
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