Unclassified

Biological Threats and Hazards Overview

Emergency Manager Course

Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
20-24 January 2020

Distribution Statement A
Approved for Public Release: Distribution is Unlimited
 Course Overview

• Classes of Biological Agents

• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Rickettsiae
• Chlamydia
• Fungi
• Toxins
• Characteristics of Biological Agents
• Medical Countermeasures

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 Objectives

• Define biological agents and their intent

• Recognize biological agent characteristics and
effects
• Understand the nature of biological hazards that
could be exploited as weapons
• Identify and understand potential psychological
effects of a bioweapon attack
• Examine previous bioterrorism events

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 Threat of Biological Agents

“ The devastation that could be brought about by the

military use of biological agents is suggested by the
fact that throughout history, the inadvertent spread of
infectious disease during wartime has caused far
more casualties than actual combat.”
U.S. CDC/Janice Haney Carr

– John P. Heggers

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 Classes of Biological Agents

• Bacteria (example: Bacillis anthracis)

• Viruses (example: Smallpox)
• Rickettsiae (example:

U.S. CDC/Janice Haney Carr

Rickettsia
prowezkii)
• Chlamydia (example: Chlamydia
psittaci)
• Fungi (example: Claviceps purpurea)
• Toxins (example: Ricin)

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 Bacteria

• Free-living organisms
• Grown on solid or liquid culture
• Genetic material
• Cytoplasm Cytoplasm
Cell membrane
• Cell membrane Muraine cell wall
Cell capsule
• Reproduce by simple Mitochondrion division
Nucleoid

• Treatable with antibiotics Plasmid

domdomegg
Flagellum

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 Bacteria as a Biological Weapon Agent
in World War II (1 of 2)

Japan’s Unit 100 operated under the name

“ Department of Veterinary Disease Prevention of
the Kuantung Army”

IJA 18th Infantry Regiment History Association

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 Bacteria as a Biological Weapon Agent
in World War II (2 of 2)

Field trials of biological weapons conducted in 11

Chinese cities
• Fleas carrying Yersinia pestis dropped from airplanes
causing approximately 100 recorded deaths
• Food and water contaminated causing 10,000 cholera
casualties in Changteh

Tom Kim, Ron Taylor,

Microscope Facility
Dartmouth Electron
Louisa Howard-
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 Viruses

• Require living cells to

replicate
• Dependent upon the host
• Not responsive to
antibiotics
• May be responsive to
antiviral compounds,
which are of limited use

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 Viruses as a Biological Weapon Agent

In 1763, British General Jeffrey Amherst approved a

plan to “ reduce” the Native American population by
attempting to intentionally spread smallpox among
the tribes
Thomas Gainsborough-National
Portrait Gallery

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 Rickettsiae

• Similar characteristics to
bacteria and viruses

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• Possess metabolic enzymes
• Have cell membranes
• Utilize oxygen
• Susceptible to broad-
spectrum antibiotics
• Found only within living
cells

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 Rickettsia as a Biological Weapon Agent

Rickettsia prowazekii - the causative agent of

louseborne typhus has been weaponized and field-
tested, with variable effectiveness, by the former
Soviet Union and the United States

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention
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 Chlamydia

• Obligatory intracellular parasites

• Incapable of generating their own energy
• Responsive to broad-spectrum antibiotics
• Require living cells for multiplication

U.S. CDC/Dr. E. Arum; Dr. N. Jacobs

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 Chlamydia as a Biological Weapon
Agent

Fort Detrick, Maryland – Produced Chlamydia

psittaci at Pilot Plant Number 3 on a large scale for
weaponization

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 Fungi

• Primitive plants
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• Do not photosynthesize
• Capable of anaerobic growth
• Draw nutrition from decaying
vegetable matter
• Form spores – operationally significant
• Free-living forms found in soil
• Fungal diseases respond to
antimicrobials

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 Fungi as a Biological Weapon Agent

2,500 years ago, Assyrians used rye ergot (fungus) to

poison enemy wells

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 Toxins

• Poisonous substances to
• Plants
• Animals
• Microorganisms
• Some require chemical
alteration
• Countered by specific antisera
and pharmacologic agents

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 Toxins as Biological Weapon Agents

• World War II: Ricin code-named “ Compound W”

• The United States and Great Britain collaboration
resulted in the development of a “ W-Bomb” during
World War II that was tested but never used in battle
• Russian KGB used “Compound W” to
assassinate Georgi Markov in 1978

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 Characteristics – Biological Weapon
Agents

• Ability to infect reliably in small doses

• Ease of dissemination
• Ability to survive dissemination
• High virulence
• Minimal contagiousness

U.S. CDC/Jim Gathany

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 Relative Toxicity of Biological Weapon
Agents

1 gram of anthrax spores contains 10 million lethal doses

Approximately 10 grams of anthrax spores can kill as many
people as a ton of sarin

Biological Weapon Chemical Weapon

Agents Toxins Agents
-4
10 .01mg 100mg
-8 -7 -6 -5
10 10 10 10 .001mg .1mg 1mg 10mg 1gram

Estimated Lethal Dose (milligrams [mg]/person)

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 Characteristics – Biological Weapon
Agents

• Ability to infect reliably in small doses

• Ease of dissemination
• Ability to survive dissemination
• High virulence
• Minimal contagiousness

Tech. Sgt. Ryan Campbell

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 Highly Toxic But Difficult to Use
(1 of 2)

Causes of loss of bioactivity

• High surface area at air-water interfaces (frothing)
• Extreme temperatures or pressures
• High salt concentrations
• Dilution
• Exposure to specific inactivating
agents

Mark Olsen
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 Highly Toxic But Difficult to Use
(2 of 2)

• Delivery requires extensive research, development,

and testing
• Involves complex engineering hurdles
• Solved by few countries (United States and former
Soviet Union)

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 Characteristics – Biological Weapon
Agents

• Ability to infect reliably in small doses

• Ease of dissemination
• Ability to survive dissemination
• High virulence
• Minimal contagiousness

U.S. CDC/Ronald K. Smithwick

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 Dissemination (1 of 2)

• Microbial pathogens are fragile

• Generating aerosols places mechanical stresses on
microorganisms
• Explosive dispersion or passage through a spray
device kills 95% of the microorganisms
• Even if the agent survives (viable) it may not cause
infection (virulent)

U.S. CDC/Janice Haney Carr

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 Dissemination (2 of 2)

• Infectious when inhaled at ~2 meters off the

ground
• Aerosol cloud “ decays” over time
• Two stages of decay
• Rapid – several seconds after release
• Slower – may persist for a long time
• Particles are eventually deposited on ground
• Re-suspension of particles

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 Characteristics – Biological Weapon
Agents

• Ability to infect reliably in small doses

• Ease of dissemination
• Ability to survive dissemination
• High virulence

U.S. CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith; Thomas Rowe

• Minimal contagiousness

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 Droplet Size and Penetration of
Respiratory Passages

t
T rac
ry
pi rato
R es
per
Deposition %

Up
Al
ve s
o la iole
rD nc h
uc Bro Br
on
t s c hi

Droplet Diameter (micrometers)

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 How Viruses Infect

Virus

Neuraminidase
Genetic Material

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 Characteristics – Biological Weapon
Agents

• Ability to infect reliably in small doses

• Ease of dissemination
• Ability to survive stresses during dissemination
• High virulence
• Minimal contagiousness

U.S. CDC/J. Todd Parker; PhD

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 Influenza as a Biological Weapon Agent
(1 of 4)

• Is it possible to manufacture a virus that occurred

in 1918?
• Virus fragments found
• Used to discover and publish

U.S. CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith; Thomas Rowe

nucleotide sequences

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 Influenza as a Biological Weapon Agent
(2 of 4)

• Generated recombinant influenza viruses

containing these genes
• Demonstrated that…
• Recombinant viruses were deadly
in mice
• Sensitive to antiviral drugs in vitro
and in vivo

U.S. CDC/Dr. Terrence Tumpey

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 Influenza as a Biological Weapon Agent
(3 of 4)

• Avian H5N1 Influenza

Virus
• No sustained human-to-

U.S. CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith; Jackie Katz

human transmission
• Researchers combined H5
HA gene with H1N1 2009

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 Influenza as a Biological Weapon Agent
(4 of 4)

• Identified transmission between mammals

• Infection resulted in death of ferrets
• Vaccines and antiviral compounds effective
• Future research may produce resistant strain

Alfredo Gutiérrez
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 Medical Countermeasures

• Anti-viral treatments
• Anti-bacterial
• Anti-fungal
• Vaccine program

U.S. CDC/Douglas E. Jordan; Dan Higgins

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 Summary

• Classes of biological agents

• Biological weapons
• Characteristics of biological agents

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Questions?

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