Recent News

By Region: North America

Biological Attack Threat Cited as Pentagon Bolsters Defenses

(Bloomberg) The Pentagon is increasing spending to combat biological threats, such as highly toxic ricin, as U.S. spy agencies warn that a terrorist group might conduct a “limited” attack “in the next year.” While a mass attack by foreign terrorist groups using a chemical, biological or radiological weapon in the U.S. is “unlikely” in the Read More »

February 1, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biological Weapons, and Policy & Initiatives
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FMD Vaccination Planning Guidelines are Available

(National Hog Farmer) Officials who will be involved in decisions related to the use of vaccines to help control a US outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) have two ways to access important guidelines. These documents are also available on the Foreign Animal Disease …

February 1, 2012
| Filed under North America, Agriculture, and Countermeasures
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Battle over H5N1 research continues in media, journals

(CIDRAP) In another Times letter, Dr. Richard Ebright, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Princeton University, said the research on lab-generated transmissible H5N1 viruses should be regulated the same way smallpox virus research is regulated.

February 1, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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NSABB and H5N1 redactions: Biosecurity runs up against scientific endeavor

(American Society for Microbiology) In response to recent actions of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which recommended that two scientific journals withhold crucial details in upcoming reports about experiments with a novel strain of the bird flu virus, H5N1, the American Society for Microbiology will publish a special series of commentaries by Read More »

February 1, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, Public Health, and Research
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Lungs infected with plague bacteria also become playgrounds for other microbes

(University of North Carolina School of Medicine) Researchers led by William E. Goldman, Ph.D. of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine show that the plague bacteria transform the lungs from a nasty place for microbes into a playground for them to flourish.