ABSTRACT

Biological threat agents are disease-causing or toxic materials that originate or are derived from naturally occurring or engineered living organisms, including bacteria, plants, rickettsiae, or viruses. These agents may be intentionally employed to cause morbidity or mortality in humans or other living organisms (Burrows and Renner 1999; Lindler et al. 2005). More extensive clarification and discussion of characteristics and identification of biological threat agents are provided in Chapter 2. Biological threat agents include a wide range of pathogenic and toxic materials produced from microorganisms that are used to intentionally interfere with the biological metabolic processes of a host. These substances work to kill or incapacitate the host and may be

9.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 229 9.2 Bacterial Agents ..........................................................................................230