http://www.earthchangesTV.com/biology/index.htm#anthrax0513 May 1999 KILLER VIRUSES My research indicates that there are a number of new disease viruses that are being developed, or are already developed, by several countries as lethal pathogens for biowarfare. These include Ebola virus, Marburg, Rift Valley, Bolivian hemorrhagic fever, Congo-Crimean virus, smallpox, Lhassa fever, enterovirus-17, Venezuelan encephalitis, Sabia, Eastern equine encephalomyelitis, and others. In general, these viruses are very fragile and are quickly killed by sunlight. The ideal killer weapons virus should be sufficiently hardy after a laydown in the air to survive long enough to reach and kill a human host. The naturally occurring Ebola virus would be ideal for this except that it is fragile and is spread only via body fluids. American inspectors of Russian Biological laboratories have recently collected conclusive data to show that Russia has developed a recombinant strain of Ebola that is both relatively hardy and transmissible from one human to another by airborne droplet infection. It can be sprayed into the air by tanker aircraft and even crop dusting airplanes, settling over a 50 mile wide area by using special nozzles that provide a mist of very fine [1-5 micron] droplet size which remains suspended in the air over long periods, and may disseminate widely. Genetic engineering research has been conducted with the nuclear polyhedrosis virus which is an insect virus that dwells in moth larvae. It secrets a protein crystal around itself that provides considerably increased viability, and protects the virus from the effects of sunlight, facilitating laboratory handling. This could markedly enhance weapons capability. It is likely that the Russians have been able to insert genes into this insect virus from smallpox virus, and also possibly from Ebola and other viruses to engineer a new recombinant organism [Chimera] that is highly infective in laboratory animals and the human species. The Russians evidently have shared this organism with other countries such as China, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and possibly even the United States. If so, this man-made virus could be a far more lethal strategic weapon even than nuclear bombs, and under overcast skies and with light winds could be successfully disseminated widely via long range missiles which would be capable of destroying an entire army. The implications for extreme disaster are obvious. KILLER BACTERIA The scientific community that is doing biologic research today are convinced that Russia has also developed a strain of Black Plague bacteria [Yersinia pestis] that is quite hardy and highly resistant to at least 16 antibiotics. It can effectively be laid down over a wide area and could wipe out most of the population of a city the size of New York with one application. There is no known treatment, and inhalation of just a few organisms would be about 99 % lethal. This renders bioengineered plague a far more effective strategic weapon than anthrax or nuclear weaponry. Plague is now probably the ideal bioweapon for use in an ICBM warhead. Anthrax is now considered to be of limited value as a weapon, because of its vulnerability to air and sunlight and the larger innoculum required to kill an infected host. Anthrax is not a very useful organism for strategic purposes, but it may remain useful as a tactical weapon for limited area insertions, such as a city like Chicago... Byron T. Weeks, MDTitle: EARTH CHANGES TV - Biology
Biology
Biology Index
- Malaysia: Killer virus will spread...05/19/99
- Concern over Anthrax vaccine grows...05/19/99
- U.S. defends smallpox stocks...05/19/99
- Killer virus spreading in Malaysia...05/17/99
- In case of anthrax attack: Public health guidelines...05/13/99
- Switch found for bacterial infections...05/10/99
- U.S. scientists study Malaysia virus...05/04/99
- Fish found after 85-year absence...05/03/99
- Malaria kills millions annually...04/20/99
- Plant Terminator Technology...04/13/99
- Project Gargle: Influenza Disease Surveillance...04/04/99
- It's Raining Pesticides In Europe - Rainwater Undrinkable...04/04/99
- Scientist develops anti-pesticide fabric...04/04/99
- Malaysia gets U.S. help with virus outbreak...03/22/99
- NASA develops flu drug in space...03/16/99
- Research urged on Gulf War ailments...03/03/99
- Stop Dangrous Plant-Castrating "Terminator Technology"...02/28/99
- Superbugs found in chicken feed...02/26/99
- 'Supergerm' Kills Hong Kong Woman...02/22/99
- Study to target "Whirling" disease and its devastation of trout populations...02/18/99
- Bioterrorism: ‘a very real scenario’...02/17/99
- “Superbug” concerns grow...02/18/99
- Diary of an anthrax attack...02/17/99
- Tons of rare Indonesian fish die...02/01/99
- Oyster disease linked to climate change...01/26/99
- U.N. urges caution with biotechnology...01/26/99
- Anthrax vaccinations protested...01/25/99
- Creating a new form of life...01/25/99
- Building smart organs - from scratch...01/25/99
- Project Could Protect Against Biological Attack...01/24/99
- Virus kills another in Malaysia...01/18/99
- Mysterious Spraying Said To Be Secret-Military Operation...01/14/99
- Libertarians blast Congress for spending $23 million to develop anti-drug killer fungus...01/14/99
- 'Machine' crafted out of DNA...01/14/99
- Radioactive tumbleweeds on rise...12/30/98
- Parasite wiping out rainbow trout...12/30/98
- Another anthrax scare in California...12/28/98
- Colorado trout devastated by disease...12/28/98
- Vaccine protects from relative of Ebola virus...11/10/98
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Malaysia: Killer virus will spread...05/19/99
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Health officials say more pigs across Malaysia will be infected by the deadly Nipah virus that has already killed more than 100 people, news reports said Wednesday. Malaysia has been conducting random tests on pigs throughout the Southeast Asian nation, according to the Veterinary Services director general. Any hog farm found with just one infected pig must destroy its entire stock, a newspaper reported. The virus first surfaced in Negri Sembilan state in western Malaysia where 84 people died, including the outbreak's latest victim, pig farmer Gan Teng Hin, who died Monday. The virus has since swept into the states of Perak, Johor, Kelantan, Malacca and Selangor.
Concern over Anthrax vaccine grows...05/19/99
by Jon E. Dougherty (WorldNetDaily)
Military men and women are increasingly refusing to be vaccinated against Anthrax for fear the immunization is worse than the threat of disease. There is growing evidence they may be right. Researchers at Tulane University found that squalene, a naturally occurring substance in the human body, was found in higher than normal levels in the bodies of all service personnel who were vaccinated with a full compliment of vaccines by the U.S. government, whether they actually served in the Persian Gulf or not. Since that initial discovery, squalene has again surfaced as a possible causative agent in another military vaccine -- Anthrax -- that has sickened more military personnel who have begun taking the series as ordered by the Pentagon last year.
U.S. defends smallpox stocks...05/19/99
GENEVA (AP) - The U.S. refused Tuesday to commit to destroying its samples of the smallpox virus, even if the 191-nation World Health Organization upholds its decision that all stocks should be destroyed in six weeks. Smallpox was wiped out as a disease in 1980 following a worldwide immunization campaign, but known stocks of the virus are still kept in two laboratories - one in the U.S. and one in Russia. Terrorism experts in the U.S. maintain some of the Russian stocks may have been moved to other, undeclared sites that are possibly less secure than the declared laboratory, the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Siberia.
Killer virus spreading in Malaysia...05/17/99
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia has ordered the immediate closure of 79 pig farms in the southern state of Malacca because tests showed that pigs on four of the farms were infected with the deadly Nipah virus, news reports said Monday. Malacca Chief Minister Abu Zahar Isnin was quoted by the national news agency Bernama as saying that health officials would slaughter 27,700 pigs on the four farms. Malacca is the latest Malaysian state affected by the eight-month outbreak of two viruses that have killed more than 100 people this year. Health officials initially believed the disease was Japanese encephalitis, which is transmitted from pigs to humans by the Culex mosquito. Later, scientists identified a new virus, named Nipah after the Malaysian village where it claimed its first victim.
In case of anthrax attack: Public health guidelines...05/13/99
Baltimore (CNN) -- In the unlikely event that the deadly and invisible anthrax organism is ever released in the air of a populated area, U.S. doctors and public health directors now have guidelines for how to respond. The recommendations appear in the May 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Thomas Inglesby of Johns Hopkins University and colleagues in the Working Group on Civilian Biodefense wrote that anthrax, one of numerous biological agents that could be used as weapons, could cripple a city or region. They cite a 1993 report that estimated the aerosolized release of 100 kilograms of anthrax spore upwind of Washington, D.C., could kill 130,000 to 3 million people -- matching or exceeding the lethal effects of a hydrogen bomb.
According to the report, anthrax is odorless, invisible and could travel miles through the air. They say the first evidence of an anthrax attack could be "the sudden appearance of a large number of patients in a city or region with an acute-onset, flu-like illness and case fatality rates of 80 percent or more, with nearly half of all deaths occurring within 24 to 48 hours."
Naturally occurring anthrax is a bacteria that infects animals. Livestock are usually vaccinated against the disease. The more usual ways humans become infected include handling material from infected animals and inhaling anthrax spores from infected animal materials. Human cases of anthrax are extremely rare in the United States.
If recognized in the initial stages of infection, anthrax is easily controlled with antibiotics. However, the initial symptoms, which include fever, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, coughing, headache, vomiting, chills, weakness, abdominal pain and chest pain, are difficult to distinguish from a number of illnesses.
In the event of a bioterrorist attack with anthrax, the Working Group on Civilian Biodefense recommended:
1) The first suspicion of anthrax infection must lead to immediate notification of the local or state health department, local hospital epidemiologist and local or state health laboratory.
2) Vaccination of some essential service personnel should be considered if vaccine becomes available. If vaccines were readily available, post-exposure vaccination after an attack in combination with antibiotics would be recommended for those exposed.
3) Early antibiotic therapy is essential after exposure to anthrax. A delay even by hours could substantially lessen chances for survival. Given the difficulty in achieving rapid diagnosis, all persons with fever or evidence of systemic disease in an area where anthrax cases are occurring should be treated for anthrax.
4) Standard barrier isolation precautions are recommended for hospitalized patients with anthrax infection. Proper burial or cremation of humans and animals who have died because of anthrax infection is important. Serious consideration should be given to cremation.
5) Anyone who comes into direct contact with any substance that could be anthrax should thoroughly wash any exposed skin or clothing with soap and water and should receive antibiotics until the substance is proved not to be anthrax.
"Most experts concur that the manufacture of a lethal anthrax aerosol is beyond the capacity of individuals or groups without access to advanced biotechnology," the authors wrote. "However, autonomous groups with substantial funding and contacts may be able to acquire the required materials for a successful attack," the report concluded.
Switch found for bacterial infections...05/10/99
(MSNBC) — In a discovery that could lead to powerful new vaccines and antibiotics, researchers have isolated a key gene that bacteria use to launch killer infections. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have demonstrated in laboratory studies that removing or inactivating a gene called DAM can disarm a strain of salmonella, bacteria that cause food poisoning in humans.
U.S. scientists study Malaysia virus...05/04/99
ATLANTA (AP) - In a quarantined laboratory, U.S. scientists outfitted in plastic biohazard spacesuits and breathing through air tubes are probing a killer that has struck on the other side of the world. The mysterious microscopic enemy has killed more than 100 people in Malaysia in seven months, and scientists are baffled about its origin and mode of transmission. "Every couple of years something like this comes along," says Dr. C.J. Peters, head of the special pathogens branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We don't know how this stuff spreads, how far it's going to go. We really don't know what's at the end of the tunnel."
Fish found after 85-year absence...05/03/99
A fish species that had not been seen for 85 years has been caught by chance in the Great Australian Bight. Marine scientists with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization identified the "lost" species as a giant roughy, or giant sawbelly, first recorded in 1914 in the Bight by fisheries scientist Harald Dannevig. "This is good news about a species that hasn't been seen in a long time," said Peter Last, a taxonomist with the research organization who is co-authoring an identification guide for edible Australian fish species Last had been in Port Adelaide photographing and recording commercial species coming off Great Australian Bight trawlers and had been speaking with fishermen, industry managers and processors about species on the handbook 'wanted' list. At the same time, Port Adelaide trawlerman Tim Parsons and skipper of the Noble Pearl had been sorting his catch and had put aside a selection of fish including the giant roughy and the similar Darwins roughy, distinct because of their pink bodies.
Malaria kills millions annually...04/20/99
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Officials from 12 African countries gathered in Nairobi Tuesday as part of the World Health Organization's campaign to control malaria. The WHO initiative aims to coordinate efforts to fight the disease throughout Africa. The continent accounts for 90 percent of the world's malaria cases, the organization said. "Malaria is not only a health problem in Africa. It has everything to do with our development," said Edwin Afari, a WHO official at the meeting. The direct and indirect costs of malaria rose to an estimated $2 billion in 1997 from $800 million in 1987, said Dr. Rufaro Chatora, the WHO's representative to Kenya. Malaria kills an estimated 1.5 to 2.7 million people annually, according to the WHO.
Plant Terminator Technology...04/13/99
"Technology Protection System" (TPS), otherwise known as Terminator Technology.
My name is Bob Mueller. I'm not a paid activist, nor am I really an activist at all, aside from the fact that I've been jostled out of complacency enough to write this alert. I am, however, an ordinary citizen who is quite unsettled by one specific issue: U.S. Patent 5,723,765, entitled "Control of Plant Gene Expression". The patent covers technology referred to as a plant "Technology Protection System" (TPS), otherwise known as Terminator Technology.
My goal is simple: to share my concern with you, in the hope that you will be alarmed enough to more completely educate yourself regarding this matter. For if I can accomplish this, I am convinced, you will surely ACT.
The USDA, spending public money, has developed a technology whereby seeds can be stripped of their ability to propagate. They are in the process of patenting the process worldwide on behalf of Monsanto, through a subsidiary (Delta and Pine Land Company).
The driving force behind the Terminator technology is the ability for Monsanto, and Delta and Pine Land Co., to protect their "inventions" from being "duplicated" unlawfully, which, granted, sounds appropriate and fair.
The result, however, will be to replace natural crops worldwide, with genetically enhanced, superior, high yield crops. Superior, that is, except for the fact that they can no longer reproduce themselves, effectively forcing farmers worldwide to buy their seeds annually from Monsanto...the world's only supplier.
The patent applies to ALL PLANTS.
This is the ultimate in Capitalism. We're going to remove nature's ability to propagate herself, so we can charge money for that privilege.
However, I only wish this were the full extent of the issue.
The part that pushes my button; the part that really unnerves me, is the probability that, for all their careful planning, this genetically altered organism will share its suicidal genes with OTHER plant species.
Most children know about the "birds and the bees" ... Indeed, Martha L. Crouch, Associate Professor of Biology at Indiana University, has published a series of papers specifying how the resulting castrated plants WILL be able to sterilise nearby normal species, via the spread of Terminator pollen. Not only that, but how these plants will be able to actually *pass* the toxin gene to other plant species through cross-pollination:
When farmers plant the Terminator seeds, the seeds already will have been treated with tetracycline, and thus the recombinase will have acted, and the toxin coding sequence will be next to the seed-specific promoter, and will be ready to act when the end of seed development comes around. The seeds will grow into plants, and make pollen. Every pollen grain will carry a ready-to-act toxin gene. If the Terminator crop is next to a field planted in a normal variety, and pollen is taken by insects or the wind to that field, any eggs fertilised by the Terminator pollen will now have one toxin gene. It will be activated late in that seed's development, and the seed will die. However, it is unlikely that the person growing the normal variety will be able to tell, because the seed will probably look normal. Only when that seed is planted, and doesn't germinate, will the change become apparent. In most cases, the toxin gene will not be passed on any further, because dead plants don't reproduce. However, under certain conditions I will discuss later, it is possible for the toxin gene to be inherited.
http://www.bio.indiana.edu/people/terminator.html
Yet this "product" has been virtually assured of being passed as safe, in the USDA's own words: "These approvals are expected because there appear to be no crop or food safety risks to the new technology. There also appear to be no environmental risks."
http://www.rafi.org/translator/termtrans.html
Now why would the USDA come to this conclusion on a technology that has only been tested by those having a vested interest in its commercial success?
Could it be because it's worth an estimated 1.5 billion dollars a year in licensing fees alone, and the USDA is LICENSING the technology to Monsanto?
Awesome economics on a global scale! Patent has been applied for in 87 countries.
Please, please, go to the following web page, and read the data... both sides of the story. There are many more potential problems with this technology than I have outlined here. Follow the links. Assure yourself that you are, indeed, awake, for you may be tempted to think this is merely a bad dream -- or a science-fiction story.
If you are as affected by the nature of this venture as I was, at the very least, please use the RAFI site to model a letter of protest that will be sent simultaneously to the Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture, the Administrator of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the Chair of the US House of Representatives Agriculture Committee, and the Chair of the US Senate Agriculture Committee.
This technology has NOT yet been commercialised. We are, in fact, in the uncommon position of being able to say "NO" before it becomes widespread -- pun intended.
I hope I have convinced you to examine this issue. As a concerned individual, I thank you for your time.
Bob Mueller. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(I am in no way affiliated with the above web sites or any organised "campaign" against this technology. I write to inform. Please feel free to forward this notice to your family and friends. Post where appropriate. However, I ask that this message be posted or forwarded in its entirety, without editing.)
Project Gargle: Influenza Disease Surveillance...04/04/99
Testing for the newest strains of influenza keeps USAF members healthy. Project Gargle is an integral part of the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating centers for influenza, via the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in the United States. In the WHO program, the Armstrong Laboratory Epidemiology Services Branch provides the CDC with a weekly summary of upper respiratory infection/influenza morbidity rates and the number of viral isolates. Data are provided by 14 sentinel USAF bases (six in the continental US and eight overseas) and are unique within DOD. Depending on the time of year and base location, the "target number" of weekly specimens submitted ranges from four to eight. Specimens are screened for seven types of respiratory viruses: influenza A and B, Respiratory Syncytial (RSV), adenoviruses, and parainfluenza ( 1, 2, and 3).
In every war, respiratory illness has denigrated readiness to a greater extent than combat related injury and death. The annual results of Project Gargle are used by the National Civilian Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in reaching decisions concerning influenza vaccine formulation. The USAF's influenza immunization program serves as the key preventive medicine program for reducing the impact of influenza in the active duty population. The success of the USAF Project Gargle program requires close cooperation between the medical staff, laboratory technicians, and military public health team to ensure that appropriate and adequate specimens are submitted. This is a very successful preventive medicine program with worldwide impact.
OPR: AL/AOES, (210) 536-3471 [DSN 240]
It's Raining Pesticides In Europe - Rainwater Undrinkable...04/04/99
By Fred Pearce and Debora Mackenzie
RAIN IS NOT what it used to be. A new study reveals that much of the precipitation in Europe contains such high levels of dissolved pesticides that it would be illegal to supply it as drinking water.
Studies in Switzerland have found that rain is laced with toxic levels of atrazine, alachlor and other commonly used crop sprays. "Drinking water standards are regularly exceeded in rain," says Stephan Müller, a chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology in Dübendorf. The chemicals appear to have evaporated from fields and become part of the clouds.
Both the European Union and Switzerland have set a limit of 100 nanograms for any particular pesticide in a litre of drinking water. But, especially in the first minutes of a heavy storm, rain can contain much more than that.
In a study to be published by Müller and his colleague Thomas Bucheli in Analytical Chemistry this summer, one sample of rainwater contained almost 4000 nanograms per litre of 2,4-dinitrophenol, a widely used pesticide. Previously, the authors had shown that in rain samples taken from 41 storms, nine contained more than 100 nanograms of atrazine per litre, one of them around 900 nanograms.
In the latest study, the highest concentrations of pesticides turned up in the first rain after a long dry spell, particularly when local fields had recently been sprayed. Until now, scientists had assumed that the pesticides only infiltrated groundwater directly from fields.
Müller warns that the growing practice of using rainwater that falls onto roofs to recharge underground water may be adding to the danger. This water often contains dissolved herbicides that had been added to roofing materials, such as bitumen sheets, to prevent vegetation growing. He suggests that the first flush of rains should be diverted into sewers to minimise the pollution of drinking water, which is not usually treated to remove these herbicides and pesticides.
Meanwhile, Swedish researchers have linked pesticides to one of the most rapidly increasing cancers in the Western world. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which has risen by 73 per cent in the US since 1973, is probably caused by several commonly used crop sprays, say the scientists.
Lennart Hardell of Orebro Medical Centre and Mikael Eriksson of Lund University Hospital found Swedish sufferers of the disease were 2.7 times more likely to have been exposed to MCPA, a widely used weedkiller, than healthy people (Cancer, vol 85 p 1353).
MCPA, which is used on grain crops, is sold as Target by the Swiss firm Novartis. In addition, patients were 3.7 times more likely to have been exposed to a range of fungicides, an association not previously reported.
The patients were also 2.3 times more likely to have had contact with glyphosate, the most commonly used herbicide in Sweden. Use of this chemical, sold as Round-Up by the US firm Monsanto, is expected to rocket with the introduction of crops, such as Roundup-Ready soya beans, that are genetically modified to resist glyphosate. The researchers suggest that the chemicals have suppressed the patients' immunity, allowing viruses such as Epstein-Barr to trigger cancer.
Scientist develops anti-pesticide fabric...04/04/99
(CNN) Imagine a cotton T-shirt that breaks down pesticides into harmless particles immediately on contact or a pair of denim jeans that disinfects itself when it touches germs or viruses. It is not far off, says a University of California, Davis researcher. In what could be a breakthrough for people working everywhere from farms to hospitals, UC Davis scientist Gang Sun thinks his chemically treated fabrics could change the way people wear their work clothes.
Malaysia gets U.S. help with virus outbreak...03/22/99
As soldiers continued to shoot thousands of pigs suspected of carrying a deadly virus, American health experts arrived in Malaysia on Monday to help combat the virus outbreak, which has killed more than 50 people. Researchers from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, invited by the Malaysian Health Ministry, will set up an office and laboratory at the Ministry to monitor cases of Japanese encephalitis and related causes of illness, a U.S. embassy official said.
NASA develops flu drug in space...03/16/99
A joint NASA-industry team has developed a new drug that may decrease the length and severity of the flu and prevent the development of symptoms in those exposed to the virus, NASA said in a statement. The drug is from a new class of medicines called neuraminidase inhibitors. They are designed to block an active site of an enzyme associated with the flu.
Research urged on Gulf War ailments...03/03/99
ATLANTA (AP) - Eight years after the Gulf War, researchers are still struggling to understand the mysterious maladies suffered by thousands of veterans. And after a three-day conference of researchers, doctors and veterans, the situation seems no clearer. Conference participants issued several recommendations Tuesday, from establishing yet another committee to investigate veterans' complaints to taking a closer look into the effects of exposure to depleted uranium - spread into the air when armor-piercing shells and bombs explode. Although thousands of Gulf War veterans have complained of chronic illnesses such as fatigue, joint pain and memory loss, researchers have not been able to link the symptoms to any particular disease or biological agent.
Stop Dangrous Plant-Castrating "Terminator Technology"...02/28/99
by: Bob Mueller
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The USDA, spending public money, has developed a technology whereby seeds can be stripped of their ability to propagate. They are in the process of patenting the process worldwide on behalf of Monsanto, through a subsidiary (Delta and Pine Land Company).
The driving force behind the Terminator technology is the ability for Monsanto, and Delta and Pine Land Co., to protect their "inventions" from being "duplicated" unlawfully, which, granted, sounds appropriate and fair.
The result, however, will be to replace natural crops worldwide, with genetically enhanced, superior, high yield crops. Superior, that is, except for the fact that they can no longer reproduce themselves, effectively forcing farmers worldwide to buy their seeds annually from Monsanto...the world's only supplier.
The patent applies to ALL PLANTS.
This is the ultimate in Capitalism. We're going to remove nature's ability to propagate herself, so we can charge money for that privilege. However, I only wish this were the full extent of the issue.
The part that pushes my button; the part that really unnerves me, is the probability that, for all their careful planning, this genetically altered organism will share its suicidal genes with OTHER plant species.
Most children know about the "birds and the bees" ... Indeed, Martha L. Crouch, Associate Professor of Biology at Indiana University, has published a series of papers specifying how the resulting castrated plants WILL be able to sterilize nearby normal species, via the spread of Terminator pollen. Not only that, but how these plants will be able to actually *pass* the toxin gene to other plant species through cross-pollination: when farmers plant the Terminator seeds, the seeds already will have been treated with tetracycline, and thus the recombinase will have acted, and the toxin coding sequence will be next to the seed-specific promoter, and will be ready to act when the end of seed development comes around. The seeds will grow into plants, and make pollen. Every pollen grain will carry a ready-to-act toxin gene. If the Terminator crop is next to a field planted in a normal variety, and pollen is taken by insects or the wind to that field, any eggs fertilized by the Terminator pollen will now have one toxin gene. It will be activated late in that seed's development, and the seed will die. However, it is unlikely that the person growing the normal variety will be able to tell, because the seed will probably look normal. Only when that seed is planted, and doesn't germinate, will the change become apparent. In most cases, the toxin gene will not be passed on any further, because dead plants don't reproduce. However, under certain conditions I will discuss later, it is possible for the toxin gene to be inherited.
Superbugs found in chicken feed...02/26/99
(Reuters) American researchers have found bacteria in chicken feed that are resistant to the most powerful antibiotics and could pose a health threat to humans.
In a letter to The Lancet medical journal on Friday, Dr Glen Morris of the University of Maryland in Baltimore said the discovery of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in animal feed raised fears that it could be passed on to humans.
“THE IDENTIFICATION of a highly resistant enterococal strain in feed raises disturbing questions about the potential for penetration of VRE strains into farms and food animal populations in the USA and subsequent risk of transfer into human populations,” he said in the letter. Animal feed is not expected to be sterile but researchers believe it is the first report of VRE from commercially prepared chicken feed in the United States. Vancomycin is the last line of resistance to so-called superbugs that have built up a resistance to most conventional drugs. Enterococci, which causes intestinal problems, is a common source of infection in hospitals and usually treated with antibiotics. Scientists blame the increase in superbugs on the overuse of antibiotics in people and animals. Medical experts think animals are the source of superbugs that are passed on to humans. The discovery of the drug-resistant enterococci in animal feed means it could be transferred to animals and to humans. The researchers did not say which company made the chicken feed or how it become contaminated, but they said drug resistant enterococci was widespread in at least one lot of feed.
'Supergerm' Kills Hong Kong Woman...02/22/99
HONG KONG (AP) _ A supergerm that has proven resistant to one of the most potent antibiotics available has killed a Hong Kong woman, officials said today, raising fears that more such germs could develop as doctors continue to misuse or overuse antibiotics. The middle-aged woman died last year at Queen Mary Hospital after becoming infected with a strain of staphylococcus aureus bacteria, or staph, despite two weeks of intensive antibiotics treatment, a spokeswoman from the official Hospital Authority said. Speaking on customary condition of anonymity, the spokeswoman confirmed a report published today in the South China Morning Post. The hospital declined to reveal the patient's identity. The woman, who also suffered from cancer, was one of a few known cases in the world in which staph proved resistant to vancomycin, an antibiotic known as ``the silver bullet,'' which doctors use as the last resort to treat infections when all other antibiotics fail. ``We are getting into the terminal stage. It is very dangerous; the bacteria have broken the last defense,'' Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at the hospital and the University of Hong Kong, was quoted as telling the newspaper. For several years, doctors have been warning of the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. Bacteria become more deadly as they mutate to survive increasing potent drugs. Yuen told the Post that a decade earlier, Hong Kong doctors discovered a case of streptococcus pneumonia that was resistant to penicillin, but now 70 percent of the cases here are resistant. Many doctors fear the time is coming when some patients will have no alternative antibiotics to turn to _ for the first time since antibiotics hit the market in the 1950s. Part of the problem is an overwillingness on the part of doctors and patients to use antibiotics for routine illnesses that could be cured by people's natural immune systems, which makes the medicines less effective. Patients ``should not seek antibiotics for a quick cure,'' Yuen said. Staph, a virulent bacterium that lives on human skin, is a common cause of infections. Many people have the germ, and it's usually harmless. But the germ can occasionally enter the body through wounds and cause serious infections of the skin, soft tissues, bones and joints. It spreads through direct contact and can cause pneumonia and fatal bacteremia, or bacterial infection of the blood, which reportedly killed the woman in Hong Kong.
Study to target "Whirling" disease and its devastation of trout populations...02/18/99
STANFORD - Researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Davis, have received funds to study whirling disease, a parasite-borne disease that is devastating native trout populations in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. Young rainbow trout are particularly susceptible to the disease that causes them to swim in erratic circles, known as tail-chasing behavior. Debilitated fish have difficulty feeding and eventually starve or succumb to predators before they are old enough to reproduce.
``The problem is extensive and it`s getting worse,`` said Irving Weissman, MD, Stanford professor of cancer biology, pathology and developmental biology and a member of the Whirling Disease Foundation`s scientific advisory board. Weissman is also an avid fly-fisherman. ``It has utterly devastated the fishing in the Madison River,`` he said, referring to a river in Montana. ``The rainbow trout used to be several thousand per mile, and they are now down to less than fifty per mile.``
The depletion of native trout populations is raising alarm among environmentalists and fly-fishing enthusiasts alike. According to the Whirling Disease Foundation, the parasite is not transmissible to humans, but researchers hope to figure out why rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and chinook salmon fall victim to the disease while close relatives such as coho salmon and brown trout become infected with the parasite but rarely show any signs of clinical disease.
Peter Parham, PhD, Stanford professor of structural biology and microbiology and immunology, and his collaborator, Ronald Hedrick, professor of veterinary medicine and epidemiology at UC Davis, have been awarded $75,000 each from the Whirling Disease Foundation for their collaborative studies.
``What we can do at Stanford is look at the genetics to see if there`s a resistant allele,`` said Benny Shum, research assistant in Parham`s lab and lead investigator of the whirling disease project. ``We want to understand the diversity of these fish and see if some of them have genetic resistance to the disease.``
Whirling disease is caused by a parasite (Myxobolus cerebralis) that invades young fish through the skin and then rapidly multiplies within the head and spinal cartilage. The ensuing pressure on nerves in the brainstem and spinal cord causes the fish to adopt the characteristic whirling that lends the disease its name. The parasite, a European native, was introduced into North American waters in the late 1950s and has since spread to 22 states.
When a diseased fish dies, thousands of parasite spores are released into the water. The spores are highly resilient and can survive for up to 30 years in an aquatic environment. In the water, the spores are ingested by the tubifex worm, the alternate host of the parasite. Inside the worm, the spores hatch into the parasitic form that can once again infect young trout. Fish can also become infected by eating other diseased fish.
Parham and Shum believe that genes in the fishes` immune system may be the key to why some fish are susceptible to the disease while others remain resistant. They are focusing on cell surface molecules encoded by a family of genes belonging to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). These molecules bind foreign antigens such as small fragments of viruses, parasites or bacteria, and display them on the outside of the cell - alerting other immune system cells that the host cell has been invaded by a foreign entity. The MHC molecules are highly variable so that they can bind a plethora of unwelcome cellular guests.
In humans, different varieties of these MHC molecules are associated with resistance to certain infectious diseases and Parham and Shum suspect that the same may be true in fish. They plan to study the MHC genes of a range of fish in an effort to correlate immune system genes with symptoms of whirling disease. Fish to be investigated will include those that have been experimentally infected with known doses of the whirling disease parasite, natural populations of disease-resistant fish from different rivers and a random sample of fish from hatcheries.
The Whirling Disease Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Bozeman, Mont. The Foundation`s fifth annual symposium on the disease will be held in Missoula, Mont., February 18-20, 1999.
Bioterrorism: ‘a very real scenario’...02/17/99
CRYSTAL CITY, Va.
A lone terrorist creates a designer microbe deadly enough to annihilate most of Manhattan. After it’s unleashed into the air, the virus will jump, silently, from person to person, infecting millions of unknowing victims. Air travelers will spread the microbe across the nation — and thousands will die within weeks. It hasn’t happened yet, but it could, public-health experts said here Tuesday — and more importantly, America is woefully unprepared for such an attack.
THE COMPELLING tale is indeed fiction, but presents a potentially very real scenario, said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who gave the keynote address here Monday at the start of a groundbreaking meeting on bioterrorism. More importantly, novels such as Richard Preston’s “The Cobra Event” raise a logical question that has not been adequately answered: “How do we successfully contain and combat the emerging threat [of bioterrorism]?” Shalala asked the audience of political leaders, physicians, scientists and intelligence experts gathered to talk about what to do should an assault be launched on civilians in the United States. While experts here stressed that the risk of a biological attack is extremely small — you’re much more likely to be hit by a car, for example — they said the United States is woefully unprepared should an attack occur. Bioterrorism presents unique challenges, they added. The effects of chemical warfare are often obvious immediately after an attack, allowing public-health officials time to mobilize and clean up the area within hours or days. But a biological attack might not be evident until weeks after the initial infection. And by then, the silent microbes could have spread to thousands, killing most in their wake. “Release of smallpox into the general population would be one of the most serious threats to mankind,” said Dr. D.A. Henderson, director of the new Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, which sponsored the meeting. “Unfortunately today, that is a very real scenario.”
“Superbug” concerns grow...02/18/99
By Robert Bazell
NBC NEWS
It is a terrifying scenario — a world where antibiotics no longer protect us from common life-threatening infections. But it is a prospect growing ever closer. “We think it is a very important public-health problem both in the United States and throughout the world,” says Dr. William Jarvis.
IN THIS WEEK’S issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Jarvis and other scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta published extensive details of the first cases of Staphylococcus (or “Staph”) bacteria, the most common source of human infection, that are resistant to all antibiotics — even vancomycin, the one powerful drug that always worked when all else failed. “With the emergence of these strains we now have a crack in that wall,” Jarvis says. So far, there are four known cases worldwide of Staph partially resistant to vancomycin — but no one thinks that is the end of it. “We feel that may be only the tip of the iceberg,” Jarvis says. Why do bacteria become resistant? The answer is natural selection — survival of the fittest. In the presence of drugs that should kill them, the bacteria mutate until a few survive that can withstand the attack of the antibiotic.
What can be done? At St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York, Anne Marie O’Brien, a nurse, heads infection control. Her greatest fear: resistant germs. “It adds a heightened consciousness and more vigilance on our part,” O’Brien says. O’Brien and her staff meticulously follow infection-control procedures. If the hospital’s lab detects antibiotic resistance, isolation rooms stand ready to make sure the infection does not spread. And most important, the medical staff follows CDC guidelines to try to keep antibiotic use to a minimum — to give the germs less of a chance to grow resistant. So far such measures are paying off — the CDC found no evidence that the first resistant strains spread. But even with continued vigilance, we face the peril of infections we cannot treat.
Diary of an anthrax attack...02/17/99
A fictional account that could become reality
By Charlene Laino
MSNBC CRYSTAL CITY, Va.
Working out of a truck, a terrorist group unleashes a cloud of anthrax over a football stadium in the town of Northeast. It will be days, and they will be miles away, before public-health officials know what happened.
WHILE A fictional scenario, the tale of Northeast illustrates just how real the threat of bioterrorism is, said Dr. Thomas Ingelsby of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies in Baltimore. At a meeting here Tuesday, he presented “Anthrax: a possible case history” to the audience:
Nov. 1: Bioterrorists release anthrax over the stadium.
Nov. 3: Northeast experiences a city-wide surge in what appear to be flu-like symptoms, with about 400 residents seeking out medical care. Because influenza has been on the rise over the past two weeks, doctors do not suspect anything out of the ordinary. Patients are sent home with a prescription to get plenty of bed rest and drink plenty of fluids.
Nov. 4: Some young, otherwise healthy patients are sicker than one would expect from a flu, leading physicians to contact local health officials. Laboratory tests prove the patients have been infected with the class of bacteria known as Bacillus, but no one does further testing to determine what type of Bacillus. (Note: Some Bacilli are relatively harmless.) The first deaths are reported, prompting urgent calls to the state and local health officials. They, in turn, contact the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. By the end of day, 1,200 are ill, 80 of whom have died.
Nov. 5: Health officials begin considering the possibility of a highly virulent microbe, such as the deadly Hong Kong flu. As the number of cases double, isolation of patients is recommended to prevent further spread. During a press conference, the mayor appeals for calm, but looks visibly surprised when asked about the possibility of a bioterrorist attack. Patients begin experiencing even more severe symptoms, including high fever, low blood pressure and septic shock. There is still no diagnosis. Physicians are told to wear protective gear, but it turns out there are only 24 hoods in the entire town of Northeast. The football stadium has now been identified as the center of epidemic, with many of the ill reporting they had attended a game there on Nov. 1. By the end of the day, the CDC has hit upon the diagnosis: anthrax, one of the deadliest microbes known to man. The mayor is outraged when she finds out there had been an anthrax threat on her town the week before, but that the FBI had failed to inform her. She is also told that a limited amount of vaccine exists, but no one knows if any will be made available to her town. As for treatment, antibiotics are recommended, but they need to be given early in the course of infection. Everyone who attended the Nov. 1 football game is urged to take prophylactic antibiotics. However, there are not enough drugs to go around, so several police stations are set up as distribution centers. By the end of day, 2,700 are ill, 300 of whom have died.
Nov. 6: By early morning, no antibiotics are left. Fifty thousand people have reportedly received doses, but no one knows whom. Gyms and shelters are opened for the ill. The media reports that the antibiotics were distributed unfairly, prompting violence. Also, doctors realize that not everyone who has been stricken was at the football game; the weather condition are now judged to have been such that the anthrax spores may have infected everyone within eight miles to the east. More panic. Despite an assurance that anthrax is not contagious, traffic is disrupted as bus drivers from other towns refuse to cross Northeast’s lines. By the end of day, 3,200 are ill, 900 of whom have died.
Nov. 7: A federal shipment of antibiotics arrives. The FBI reports that a truck was the source of the attack, but has no further details. The CDC announces that all bodies must be cremated, promoting outrage by some religious groups. More panic. By the end of day, 4,000 are ill, 1,600 of whom have died.
Nov. 8: Most health-care workers are calling in ill, and public transport is barely operational. Schools are closed. By the end of day, 4,800 are ill, 2,400 of whom have died.
In all, 20,000 people were infected in this scenario, Ingelsby said, with 4,800 becoming ill and 4,000 dying. Some were in other cities and states. The FBI never did find the culprits, but are still looking. The area downwind of the stadium became known as The Dead Zone, abandoned by homeowners and businesses alike.
Although 250,000 people received antibiotics, no one know who or how much, he said. The cost of treating everyone with a course of antibiotics would have been less than $100 per victim; the cost of having enough vaccine, less than $1 per person.
“While this is a truly horribly scenario, it could be real,” Ingelsby said, “and thus presents an enormous challenge.” Relatively modest preparation efforts could have made a difference, he said.
Tons of rare Indonesian fish die...02/01/99
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A rare fish species may be extinct following the death of huge numbers of fish in a lake on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, an expert said Monday. Hundreds of tons of decaying fish are drifting in Singkarak Lake, 60 miles north of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province. Hefrizal Sandri, a fish expert at Padang's Bung Hata University, said the disaster last week might have wiped out the Bilih fish, which exists only in Singkarak Lake. Its scientific name is Mystacoleneus padangensis. The government and researchers are still trying to figure out the cause of the disaster, Hefrizal said.
Oyster disease linked to climate change...01/26/99
(ENN) The spread of oyster disease in Chesapeake and Delaware bays, and northward along the Atlantic Coast can be linked directly to changes in winter water temperature which reflect climate warming, according to shellfish researchers.
The parasitic oyster diseases MSX and Dermo are caused by warm-water parasites that infect a variety of oysters around the world. There is no known remedy for the diseases and for more than two decades, oyster populations in Chesapeake Bay and mid-Atlantic waters have been increasingly battered by Dermo and MSX. In the Northeast, a new and as yet unidentified pathogen, called juvenile oyster disease, has been taking a toll in hatcheries. On the West Coast, the Pacific oyster has been subjected to puzzling summer mortalities.
Old Dominion University researcher Eileen E. Hofmann and her colleagues presented their findings Jan. 22 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Other researchers included John M. Klinck, Old Dominion University; Susan E. Ford and Eric N. Powell, Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Rutgers University. There work is funded under the National Sea Grant College Oyster Disease Research Program.
Ford's research team looked at the historical record of monitoring for oyster diseases and found direct evidence that increased winter water temperatures have been important in the recent outbreak of MSX along the mid-Atlantic and northeastern Atlantic coastline.
Hofmann and her colleagues developed two models that simulate the host-parasite-environmental interactions of eastern oysters and the different pathogens that cause the two diseases. The models were structured around the proliferation and death rates of both parasites under different environmental conditions. Simulations were developed that use environmental conditions characteristic of Delaware and Chesapeake bays to reproduce the seasonal disease cycles and consequent oyster mortality.
These simulations showed the effect of environmental factors, such as salinity and cold temperatures on controlling the intensity and prevalence of infections. "Results of these simulations can be used to understand the causes underlying the northward spread of these two oyster diseases along the East Coast of the United States, from Chesapeake Bay to Maine, in the decade of the 1990s," Hofmann says.
Informed resource management of shellfish populations is imperative for two reasons. It's a valuable commercial industry and shellfish populations provide a tremendous filtering ability that can help stabilize coastal estuaries' environmental systems.
"Our findings," says Hofmann, "demonstrate how important climate is in regulating diseases such as Dermo and MSX. We have to manage the disease populations with a long-term climate perspective which means that you have to be aware of such occurrences as an El Niño or other climatic effects. You cannot set management strategies based simply on what you see this week or what you've done in the past."
U.N. urges caution with biotechnology...01/26/99
(ENN) Biotechnology, which includes the application of tissue culture, immunological techniques, molecular genetics and recombinant DNA techniques in all facets of agricultural production and agro-industry, together with other technologies, could provide solutions for some of the old problems hindering sustainable rural development and achievement of food security, the Food and Agriculture Organization said.
According to the organization, biotechnology-derived solutions built into the genotype of plants could reduce the use of agrochemicals and promote sustainable yields. The application of pesticides and fungicides could be reduced through plants with genetic pest resistance. Plants with a high tolerance for conditions of salinity or high iron toxicity could help to improve agricultural production in marginal areas.
Some biotechnological techniques, like in-vitro culture, are very helpful for maintenance of germplasm collections of species with low fertility and of species that are hard to keep as seeds or in field gene banks, according to the report.
"Biotechnology may reduce genetic diversity indirectly by displacing landraces and their inherent diversity as farmers adopt genetically uniform varieties of plants and other organisms. At the same time, it increases the potential to preserve and sustainably use diversity. In the case of endangered animal breeds, cryopreservation and somatic cloning can strengthen traditional conservation strategies," the report said.
The report calls for biotechnology research and policy efforts focused on the needs of the poor who depend on agriculture, especially in marginal areas where it will be difficult to achieve productivity increases.
"Adequate biosafety regulations, risk assessment of biotechnology products, mechanisms and instruments for monitoring use and compliance to ensure that there will be no harmful effects on the environment or for people" are also required, according to the report.
Some of the potential environmental risks concern plant pests. Gene escape from genetically modified organisms may result in increased weediness in wild species, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The inclusion of novel genes for herbicide resistance in plants may increase the occurrence of weeds with resistance to certain agrochemicals, the report warned. "The inclusion of pest resistance in plants should be carefully evaluated for potential development of resistance in pests and possible side-effects on beneficial organisms."
The report encourages the Food and Agriculture Organization help members to optimize their capacity to develop, adapt and utilize biotechnology and its products to suit their needs and environment, and thus enhance global food security and improve living standards for all.
Anthrax vaccinations protested...01/25/99
ILION, N.Y. (AP)
The families of two Marines are protesting the government's plans to vaccinate 2.4 million military personnel against anthrax, saying it could lead to long-term health problems for their sons. The parents of Adam Cooper and Bradley Watson, friends who grew up together in this town east of Utica, say the military does not know enough about the vaccination and its side effects to require shots for all its personnel. So far, about 166,000 people have received at least the first in a series of six vaccinations against the potentially fatal disease, according to Jim Turner, a spokesman for the Department of Defense. Turner says the vaccine has been around for the last 25 to 30 years and is safe.
Creating a new form of life...01/25/99
By Charlene Laino MSNBC
ANAHEIM, Calif., Jan. 23
Blurring the line between science and science fiction further than ever before, a prominent genetics researcher predicted Saturday that he will create a new form of life within a decade. The man-made life form — artificial bacteria — could be used to clean up environmental spills or to create new drug delivery systems, said J. Craig Venter, director of The Institute of Genetics Research in Rockville, Md. But Before... scientists introduce a new form of life, a community-wide debate on the ethics of such research must take place, said Venter, a pioneer in the rapidly growing field of genomics. If, through genomics, “we can get down to the building blocks of life, can we rebuild them into a new organism?” he asked. “No doubt, we can. “But is that ethical? And what are the implications in terms of biowarfare?” Venter has been mired in controversy for years, in 1998 announcing that he would take his genetic sequencing knowledge and join forces with a private company. Their goal: to unravel the genome, or DNA sequence, of humans by the year 2001 - faster and less expensively than the government. What made it possible, Venter said, are highly automated sequencing machines that have greater computational power, allowing researchers to blast 10 genomes into billions of base pairs and then reassemble them, in order. To power the research, TIGR built one of the biggest computers in the world, which occupies most of a 26,000 square-foot floor of its building. The federally sponsored Human Genome Project, one the other hand, utilizes a clone-by-clone approach that more slowly - though critics say more accurately — build billions of DNA pieces into the approximately 60,000 genes that make up the human genome. But even as they chip away at unraveling the human genome, TIGR has already published the complete genetic sequence of several other organisms.
CREATING A NEW LIFE FORM To build a new organism from scratch, Venter said, scientists first needed to arrive at a molecular definition of life - the minimum set of genes that contains the complete instructions to build and operate a living organism. The smallest known genome turned out to be Mycoplasma genitalium, which sports just 470 genes compared to the 60,000 to 80,000 genes that comprise man. A ubiquitous and relatively harmless bacterium, almost everyone has been infected with Mycoplasma genitalium at some point. Once his team had its entire genome sequence, they started knocking out different genes to see if it would still code for the entire organism. “What we were surprised at is the number of the 470 genes in Mycoplasma genitalium that we could knock out and still have a complete organism,” Venter said. “Our best estimate at this point is that we can knock out some 200 genes, meaning that only 300 or so are needed.” Once they know exactly which 300 are needed, he said, they can splice them together and create a new creature. The new life form could then be tailored with other genes so that it absorbs toxins, for example, or can deliver drugs, Venter said.
THE ETHICS But would such a new life form be unethical, giving terrorists the basic ammunition they need to create a new form of biowarfare? To answer those questions, a national debate is needed, most scientists agree. Microbiologist Dr. Frank Young, the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who is now at the Reformed Theological Seminary, said that Venter’s work provides us with new ammunition against terrorists. “In the viral terrorism field, there are always going to be new technologies developed by the noble that could be taken over by the bad guys,” he said. “But it is always better to know what we are dealing with than not to know. “With Venter’s advances, we can know within minutes, rather than days, what comprises a particular agent. The biggest deterrent to an enemy is to know rapidly what you are dealing with. “By the very nature of being able to identify it, we can defeat it.”
Building smart organs - from scratch...01/25/99
By Charlene Laino MSNBC ANAHEIM, Calif., Jan. 24
With the problem of organ shortage looming as great as ever, researchers are moving towards growing new tissue or even entire organs for transplantation. From sprouting new cartilage on smart grafts to building new hearts through genetic engineering, the field is fast graduating from an intellectual curiosity to a tool for treating medical ills.
Thought routine, transplantation of laboratory-grown organs into humans remains years away, the field is sprouting like never before. The ultimate goal, researchers say, is to take a small piece of a person’s own tissue and grow a “patch” or entire organ that is suitable for transplantation back into the patient.
Such an approach would eliminate problems related to rejection, which occurs when tissue or an organ is transplanted from one person to another, experts say. Moreover, the new methods are expected to be associated with less pain and fewer complications, while solving the problem of supply that now limits transplants of all kinds.
Project Could Protect Against Biological Attack...01/24/99
By Maggie Fox,
Health and Science Correspondent
ANAHEIM, Calif. (Reuters)
Itemizing all the genes in potential biological weapons such as anthrax or bubonic plague could prevent extremists from ever using them against the United States, experts said Sunday. They called for a kind of bioterrorism genome project, similar to the Human Genome Project currently under way in which scientists are racing to map out, or sequence, every gene in the human body.
Having that information about pathogens at hand could help in the design of quick tests to detect an attack, and in the development of drugs to treat or vaccines to prevent infection, they told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ``If we have the genetic code of every pathogen and rapid detection methods ... it would act as a deterrent,'' J. Craig Venter, co-founder of Rockville, Maryland-based Celera Genomics Corp., told a news conference. ``It will tip the balance in favor of defense over offense,'' added Dr. Frank Young, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientist who is now at the Reformed Theological Seminary.
One of the most frightening things about biological weapons is their invisibility. An attacker could set loose airborne particles such as anthrax -- a deadly bacterium -- or perhaps a genetically engineered flu virus, using a device the size of a shoebox. The pathogens could float invisibly and silently, infecting hundreds of thousands of people in a busy area. The victims would carry away their infections and not know for days -- too late for treatment in the case of anthrax, and in the case of a virus such as flu, giving them a chance to infect thousands more.
Young said he worked at the Office of Emergency Preparedness in 1995 when hantavirus, a newly discovered virus, started killing people in the U.S. southwest. It took five days to determine that a natural virus was at fault and even longer to identify it. ``To sit there trying to manage an infectious outbreak, not knowing if it is man-made or natural, is terrible,'' he said. Young served on a committee of experts who advised President Clinton on the risks last year. Young said the odds of an attack were low. ``But the consequences are so high that for a nation not to be prepared is unthinkable,'' he said. Friday, Clinton asked Congress for more than $2.8 billion to defend against chemical and germ warfare and protect computer networks. That would include $1.39 billion for domestic readiness against an attack with weapons of mass destruction, $52 million of which would go for a national stockpile of vaccines, antibiotics and other medicines to protect the civilian population, and $611 million for training and equipping emergency personnel in U.S. cities. A further $206 million would go for research and development for vaccines against chemical and germ weapons, new therapies, detection and diagnosis, and decontamination.
Young said Clinton responded unusually quickly to the committee's recommendations. In only four months, ``seventy-five percent of the monies that we recommended have been funded,'' he said. ``That's like a hot knife going through butter in the bureaucracy.'' Venter, who was also on the committee advising Clinton, said using genome knowledge as a deterrent was one piece of advice they gave the president. ``What we argued is if we have the genome of every pathogen and every potential bioterrorism agent, we could quickly identify any hybrid organism,'' he said. Venter cited reports that suggested scientists in the former Soviet Union genetically engineered anthrax to resist current U.S. vaccines. Such genetic fiddling could be easily detected using speedy genome equipment. Letting potential attackers know the United States had that ability would discourage them from even trying to launch an attack. ``The more this information is public, the more it serves as a deterrent,'' Venter said.
Virus kills another in Malaysia...01/18/99
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - An outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis in Malaysia claimed its 14th victim after a pig farmer suspected to be suffering from the illness died Monday, a news report said. The 28-year-old man died at Ipoh Hospital, 120 miles north of Malaysia's capital city, after suffering from symptoms associated with the deadly mosquito-borne virus, state-run Bernama news agency said. Health authorities have been monitoring a rise of Japanese Encephalitis, which is believed to be passed to humans by certain mosquitoes that have bitten infected pigs. The disease claimed three lives in 1997, and seven last year, mostly in the northern state of Perak and Sarawak state on Borneo island.
Mysterious Spraying Said To Be Secret-Military Operation...01/14/99
The Environmental News Service has a follow-up to their report about multiple sightings around the U.S. of massive grid-work patterns in the sky being created by fleets of jets that fly back and forth and spray down a material that seems to make people ill.
In their follow-up [1], ENS interviews Thomas Farmer, an ex-Raytheon Missile Systems engineer who's been tracking the mysterious spraying incidents for over a year. Farmer has confirmed that jets used to spray are Air Force jets, and he's made several collections of the cobweb-like, or "angel hair," material the jets are spraying out, which made him, just like many others, sick after contact. It appears to be a substance used to seed (build) clouds.
ENS reports that Farmer is "fairly certain the contrail phenomena is one part of a military weather modification weapons system." The ENS report then observes that a sub- set of the military plan to use weather as a weapon and create a "Weather Force," is massive cloud-seeding that will work in with the HAARP antenna in Alaska, which is the U.S. military's primary weather-weapons system, which can exert effects on locations across the earth.
The openly-stated goal for the U.S. military is to "own the weather" [2] by year 2025 and to thereby be able to bring target populations to their knees by "storm enhancement," "storm modification," and being able to "induce drought." [1] So rather than natural laws of solar-heating and earth-rotation directing the weather, the weather will be determined by who is pleasing or displeasing our military masters, or then again, perhaps power does not really corrupt.
A U.S. military webpage [3] states that weather modification by the military is intended to allow for "storm triggering/enhancement using airborne cloud seeding." That military webpage also says:
"A global network of sensors provides 'weather warriors' with the means to monitor and accurately predict weather activities and their effects on military operations. A diverse set of weather modification tools allows manipulation of small- to-medium scale weather phenomena to enhance friendly force capabilities and degrade those of the adversary. Many of the sensors required for this system are assumed to be...part of the global information management system (GIMS)...
" Apart from allowing for an Orwellian-weather tyranny, military-weather control could lead to environmental catastrophe, since the desire to exert control will conflict with and overpower rational environment con- siderations, particularly if control is directed under the cover of military secrecy. Deliberate large-scale modification of the weather must be the most dangerous thing we could do to our planet, and it appears that military-weather-control planning is being done in secret, outside the realm of democratic oversight, just where it needs to be for the worst outcomes!
______________________________________________________
[1] Read The Full Environmental News Service Report "Mystery Contrails May
Be Modifying Weather" (1/12/99):
http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/jan99/1999L-01-12-01.html
[2] Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/database/research/ay1996/acsc/96-025ag.htm
[3] Military Weather Analysis and Modification System:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/volume4/chap03/b9_2.htm
After my first message on this topic one person replied saying the grid pattern of contrails appeared in their area in Idaho and 13 people (mostly old) died shortly there after. Another person responded saying they've seen unique grid-work contrail patterns in Georgia.
Libertarians blast Congress for spending $23 million to develop anti-drug killer fungus...01/14/99
WASHINGTON, DC -- The United States government is spending $23 million to develop a killer fungus to wipe out marijuana plants -- a dangerous plan that could cause an environmental catastrophe, said the Libertarian Party today.
"This project is the political equivalent of athlete's foot fungus: It's nasty, it's dangerous, and it needs to be stopped before it spreads," said LP National Director Steve Dasbach. "The last thing we need is a bio-engineered killer fungus turned loose on the world."
Late last year, Congress passed legislation that authorized $23 million for research into soil-borne fungi called "mycoherbicides," which will attack and kill marijuana plants, poppy plants, and coca plants.
When developed, the fungus could be released in such South American countries as Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, said U.S. officials.
The legislation was guided through Congress by U.S. Representatives Bill McCollum (R-FL) and Mike DeWine (R-OH), who said the killer fungus was potentially a "silver bullet" in the War on Drugs. But Libertarians say the tax-subsidized fungus is a "biohazard" that could have a disastrous impact on the ecosystems of the target nations -- and, potentially, the whole world. "In the government's irresponsible search for a quick-fix in the War on Drugs, politicians could cause terrifying long-term ecological problems," warned Dasbach.
According to scientists, the killer fungus could... * Attack other plants, wiping out valuable cash crops. "For example, a chemical alkaloid similar to the one that produces cocaine is present in many legal plants -- including tobacco and coffee beans," said Dasbach. "In an effort to wipe out drugs, this killer fungus could wipe out the livelihood of millions of farmers." * Cause many plants to develop stronger chemical defenses against the fungus, which could then mutate and spread to other, harmful plants. "According to scientists, mutated plants could pass on these resistant genes and create herbicide-resistant weeds, which could have a ruinous effect on farm yields," he said. "With world hunger already a problem, why risk making it worse?" * Wipe out industrial hemp plants, which are legal in every major industrialized country outside the United States. "No fungus is smart enough to tell the difference between legal hemp and illegal marijuana," noted Dasbach. "This fungus could be the biological warfare equivalent of carpet bombing -- killing whatever is in its path.
" What should Americans do about this dangerous program? Tell their Congressional representatives to apply a strong dose of political fungicide to "cure" it, said Dasbach. "This tax-funded fungus should be treated like any dangerous mold or mildew -- exposed to sunlight and wiped clean. Congress should just say no to biological warfare."
Dasbach also said Libertarians have a better way to reduce the consumption of marijuana, with no environmental risks: Legalize it. In the Netherlands, he noted, where marijuana is decriminalized, drug use is half that of the United States. In fact, a new study revealed that while 32.9% of Americans have tried marijuana, only 15.6% of Dutch adults have done so.
"Treating adults like adults -- and letting them make decisions about how to live their lives -- seems to have a stronger anti-drug effect than any killer fungus," said Dasbach. "Wouldn't it be ironic if liberty was a more effective anti-drug program than deadly mycoherbicides?"
'Machine' crafted out of DNA...01/14/99
(AP) - Scientists have made a moving part out of a few strands of DNA, a step toward building incredibly tiny "machines" that could someday perform intricate jobs like building computer circuits and clearing clogged blood vessels in the brain. The hinge-like part, which bends on cue, is just four-ten-thousandths of the width of a human hair. The new work is not the first time scientists have turned chemical compounds into moving parts. But previous examples have been hampered by their floppy nature. The DNA device, however, is particularly rigid and executes motions 10 times bigger, lead researcher Nadrian C. Seeman said.
Radioactive tumbleweeds on rise...12/30/98
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) - First, radioactive ants, flies and gnats were found at the Hanford nuclear complex, which for years churned out plutonium for nuclear weapons. Now a government report says there has been a dramatic increase in the number of radioactive tumbleweeds found blowing around the place. The Department of Energy found 20 contaminated tumbleweeds in the first six months of 1998, compared with 11 during all of 1995, an increase likely due to stepped-up efforts to search the area. With roots that can stretch 15 feet into the soil looking for water, the weeds suck up contaminated groundwater and spread radioactivity when the top of the plant is blown away by the wind.
Parasite wiping out rainbow trout...12/30/98
DECKERS, Colo. (AP) - A parasite is wiping out rainbow trout in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The parasite is carried by a worm and causes whirling disease, which makes fingerling trout spin in circles until they die. Over the past few years, the disease has infected a number of prize rainbow trout streams in the West, including the Madison, the Yellowstone, the South Platte and even the Blackfoot, which was celebrated in the book and the movie "A River Runs Through It." German brown, cutthroat, brook and lake trout are less susceptible to the disease and are replacing the rainbow trout in many rivers.
Another anthrax scare in California...12/28/98
POMONA, Calif. (AP) - Hundreds of people were quarantined for hours inside a nightclub after a phony anthrax threat, at least the seventh such hoax in Southern California this month. No trace of the potentially deadly bacterium was found in preliminary tests, authorities said Sunday. A Los Angeles County hazardous materials team and the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Task Force were called to the Glass House club at 11:50 p.m. Saturday after a man called the Police Department and said "a significant quantity" of anthrax would be released into the air, police said. If inhaled and then left untreated, anthrax spores can cause respiratory failure and death within a week.
Colorado trout devastated by disease...12/28/98
DENVER (AP) - A disease that attacks the bone structure of young fish has wiped out 90% of Colorado's wild rainbow trout in six of the state's best trout streams, a state study shows. The study by the Colorado Division of Wildlife also found that Whirling disease has reached 12 of the state's 15 trout hatcheries, threatening the state's $420 million-a-year fishing industry. "It's like getting pounded by a sledgehammer. The disease is having a devastating effect," said Barry Nehring, state fishery biologist and author of the five-year study. "These were the best of the best rivers in Colorado." Whirling disease has killed millions of fish in such rivers as the Colorado, South Platte, Gunnison, Rio Grande, Cache la Poudre and Dolores.
Biology Index
Vaccine protects from relative of Ebola virus...11/10/98
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government researchers said Tuesday they had developed a vaccine that protects monkeys from Marburg virus, a close relative of the feared Ebola virus. A team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., said their findings offered a little hope that perhaps a vaccine can be found against Ebola which, while extremely rare, is highly deadly. "This study eases doubt about Marburg virus, but similar success with Ebola virus vaccination has been elusive except in mice and guinea pigs," said Alan Schmaljohn, who worked on the study.
Biology Index
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