Detecting and responding to bioterrorism

Biological threat agents are infectious microorganisms such as bacteria, rickettsiae, fungi, viruses, or toxins with the intent to incapacitate or kill man, or to destroy livestock, crops, or food. The use of biological threat agents in biological warfare has a long history, but the recent use of anthrax spores in bioterrorism has urged the need for responding to such threats. The design of efficient and reliable detection and identification systems is a part of bioterrorism preparedness and response. Classical microbiology, immunoassays, and nucleic acid-based methods including molecular forensics are laboratory approaches for detecting and identifying various biological threat agents. These are supplementary methods needed for verification. However, the analysis results depend on the sample collection and handling. This chapter briefly summarizes some biological warfare and bioterrorism events, the threat posed by bioterrorism. Also, various methods and systems suitable for detection and identification of biological threat agents, with emphasis on environmental samples, are described.