Pathogenic Bacilli as an Emerging Biothreat?

Abstract

Bacillus anthracis, present as a very durable endospore in soil, causes zoonotic illness which is mainly associated with herbivores and domestic animals. Human cases are scarce and often involve populations close to infected livestock. If anthrax is no longer of public health concern in developed countries, B. anthracis is one of the top-tier biological weapon agents. It is classified by the CDC as a category A agent. Since 1994, emerging strains of Bacillus cereus have been associated with anthrax-like disease in mammals. Some clinical strains of B. cereus harbor anthrax-like plasmid genes (pXO1 and pXO2) associated with non-human primate and human infections, with the same clinical presentation of inhalation anthrax and mortality rates. Although currently restricted to certain limited areas of circulation, the emergence of these new strains of B. cereus extends the list of potential agents possibly usable for bioterrorism or as a biological weapon. It is therefore important to improve our knowledge of the phylogeny within the B. cereus sensu lato group to better understand the origin of these strains. We can then more efficiently monitor the emergence of new strains to better control the risk of infection and limit potentially malicious uses.

Anthrax revisited: how assessing the unpredictable can improve biosecurity

“…The deliberate, malicious misuse of biosciences and technology, besides a motive, requires intention and material resources including technological infrastructure, access to information as well as necessary explicit and tacit knowledge ( Vogel, 2006 ; Nixdorff, 2020 ). Since the turn of the millennium, there exists an apprehension that terrorists or other state- or non-state actors might circumvent existing biosecurity regulatory systems by acquiring new tacit knowledge, expertise, or vulnerabilities to develop biological weapons ( Riedel, 2005 ; Cole and Bergman, 2010 ; Mondange et al, 2022 ). Explicit knowledge includes standard operation procedures for producing and processing biological agents and can be acquired through open-access scientific literature.…”

“…Strains lacking either plasmid are either avirulent or significantly attenuated ( Okinaka et al, 1999 ; Pilcher, 2003 ). In the upcoming years, knowledge about other pathogenicity factor genes increased, and “at the dawn of the 21st century, the scientific field of anthrax was perceived as a dead end” ( Mondange et al, 2022 ).…”

“…It was reported that the United States ( Matsumoto, 2003 ) and USSR ( Zilinskas, 2014 ) produced dried anthrax spores in the scope of their BW programs. Also, the Aum Shinrikyo cult attempted to obtain anthrax in powder form ( Danzig et al, 2012 ), while Iraq experimented with lypholization ( Mondange et al, 2022 ). The best-known case of deploying anthrax as a powder is the 2001 anthrax attack (v. s. Amerithrax), where the spores were dried to the concentration of 2.0 × 10 12 colony-forming units per Gram ( USDOJ, 2010 ).…”

Analysis of Sporulation in Bacillus cereus Biovar anthracis Which Contains an Insertion in the Gene for the Sporulation Factor σK

“…In strains relevant to human and veterinary health, such as B. anthracis, spores are mainly responsible for infection [10]. Moreover, spores of B. anthracis have been used as bioweapons in the past, because they can easily be produced in high amounts and efficiently distributed [11].…”

A simple undergraduate laboratory exercise for teaching the role of sentinel-level clinical microbiology testing in biological threat identification

“…Bacillus anthracis , the causative agent of anthrax, is considered a Tier 1 select agent because of its potential for causing a mass casualty event and its prior history of intentional use in bioterrorism ( 4 , 5 ). Infections with B. anthracis are primarily zoonotic, affecting herbivores that encounter B. anthracis spores in contaminated soil ( 6 ).…”