Recent News

By Region: North America

Syria Faces Heightened Canadian Penalties

(Global Security Newswire) Canada on Friday announced new penalties against the Syrian government that include a ban on the sale of materials that could support manufacturing of biological and chemical warfare materials. The Assad regime is widely believed to hold a sizable stockpile of mustard and nerve agents, along with missiles and other means of Read More »

July 10, 2012
| Filed under Middle East, North America, and Biological Weapons
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Study finds ‘mad cow disease’ in cattle can spread widely in ANS before detectable in CNS

(EurekAlert!) Philadelphia, PA – Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or “mad cow disease”) is a fatal disease in cattle that causes portions of the brain to turn sponge-like. This transmissible disease is caused by the propagation of a misfolded form of protein known as a prion, rather than by a bacterium or virus. The average time Read More »

July 10, 2012
| Filed under North America and Research
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The biodefender that cries wolf

(Los Angeles Times) DENVER — As Chris Lindley drove to work that morning in August 2008, a call set his heart pounding. The Democratic National Convention was being held in Denver, and Barack Obama was to accept his party’s presidential nomination before a crowd of 80,000 people that night. The phone call was from one Read More »

July 9, 2012
| Filed under North America and Policy & Initiatives
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Plum Island Develops New FMD Vaccine

(National Hog Farmer) The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designed a molecular vaccine to protect against one strain of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which does not use the live FMD virus. The vaccine, created at the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) high-containment Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), can be used Read More »

July 9, 2012
| Filed under North America and Countermeasures
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Specialists Play Down Danger From CDC Biolab Air System Glitches

(Global Security Newswire) Ventilation issues reported at a biodefense study area overseen by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention constituted no apparent danger to the general population, two specialists said in a Tuesday report by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. A February equipment glitch at the CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Read More »