Select agent

Under United States law, Biological select agents or toxins (BSATs) — or simply select agents for short — are bio-agents which (since 1997[1]) have been declared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to have the "potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety". The agents are divided into (1) HHS select agents and toxins affecting humans; (2) USDA select agents and toxins affecting agriculture; and (3) overlap select agents and toxins affecting both.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regulates the laboratories which may possess, use, or transfer select agents within the United States in its Select Agent Program (SAP) — also called the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) — since 2001. The SAP was established to satisfy requirements of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, which were enacted in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent 2001 anthrax attacks.

Using BSATs in biomedical research prompts concerns about dual use. The federal government created the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity which promotes biosecurity in life science research. It is composed of government, education and industry experts who provide policy recommendations on ways to minimize the possibility that knowledge and technologies emanating from biological research will be misused to threaten public health or national security.

Regulation

The CDC has regulated the laboratories which may possess, use, or transfer select agents within the United States under the SAP since 2001. The SAP was established to satisfy requirements of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, which were enacted in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent 2001 anthrax attacks.

Using select agents in biomedical research prompts concerns about dual use. The federal government created the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity to promote biosecurity in life science research. It is composed of government, education and industry experts who provide policy recommendations on ways to minimize the possibility that knowledge and technologies emanating from biological research will be misused to threaten public health or national security.

Violations

In July 2015,[2] Gregory E. Demske, chief counsel to the inspector general in the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), testified that 30 civil violations of the SAP rules had been identified in the past 13 years, and that violators had paid about $2.4 million in fines. He explained that when the CDC's Division of Select Agents and Toxins detects possible SAP misconduct by an HHS worker, it coordinates with the OIG to gather facts; if it concludes that a civil violation might have occurred, it turns the case over to the OIG for possible enforcement. But if it suspects a crime, it pursues the matter with the FBI. Since passage of the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, the OIG had received 68 referrals from the CDC for possible Select Agent enforcement and found violations in 30 of those cases. Notices of violation were sent to 5 federal entities, 3 universities, and 2 other private organizations, all unnamed in his testimony. Demske remarked that no federal agencies had been fined for SAP violations.

List of select agents

Tier 1 BSATs are indicated by an asterisk (*).[3]

HHS select agents and toxins

Bacteria

Viruses

Toxins

As of April 2021 these biological agents and toxins are considered to "have the potential to pose a severe threat to both human and animal health, to plant health, or to animal and plant products".[6]

Overlap select agents and toxins

Bacteria

Viruses

USDA select agents and toxins

For animals

Bacteria
  • Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides small colony (Mmm SC) (contagious bovine pleuropneumonia)
Viruses
  • African horse sickness virus
  • African swine fever virus
  • Avian influenza virus (highly pathogenic)
  • Classical swine fever virus
  • Foot-and-mouth disease virus*
  • Lumpy skin disease virus
  • Peste des petits ruminants virus
  • Rinderpest virus*
  • Swine vesicular disease virus
  • Virulent Newcastle disease virus 1

For plants

Bacteria
Fungi or fungus-like pathogens
  • Peronosclerospora philippinensis (Peronosclerospora sacchari)
  • Phoma glycinicola (formerly Pyrenochaeta glycines)
  • Sclerophthora rayssiae var zeae
  • Synchytrium endobioticum

List of former select agents

Select agent regulations were revised in October 2012 to remove 19 BSATs from the list (7 Human and Overlap Agents and 12 Animal Agents).[7]

Human and overlap agents

Animal agents

  • Akabane virus
  • Bluetongue virus
  • Bovine spongiform encephalitis
  • Camel Pox virus
  • Erlichia ruminantium
  • Goat Pox virus
  • Japanese encephalitis virus
  • Malignant Catarrhal Fever virus (Alcelaphine herpesvirus type 1)
  • Menangle virus
  • Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae (contagious caprine pleuropneumonia)
  • Sheep Pox virus
  • Vesicular stomatitis virus (exotic): Indiana subtypes VSV-IN2, VSV-IN3

See also

  • Biological agent
  • Biosecurity in the United States
  • U.S. biological defense program

References

  1. ↑ Additional Requirements for Facilities Transferring or Receiving Select Agents, Title 42 CFR Part 72 and Appendix A; 15 April 1997 (DHHS).
  2. ↑ Roos, Robert (2015), "CDC: DoD anthrax errors involved 575 shipments', CIDRAP News (18 July issue).
  3. ↑ Select agent regulations were revised in October 2012 to designate thirteen "Tier 1" agents with a documented risk of causing a high consequence event higher than other BSATs. Criteria for Tier 1 status were (1) Ability to produce a mass casualty event or devastating effects to the economy; (2) Communicability; (3) Low infectious dose; and (4) History of or current interest in weaponization based on threat reporting. In the same revision Chapare virus, Lujo virus, and SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) were added to the list of select agents. Department of Health and Human Services (2012), “Possession, Use, and Transfer of Select Agents and Toxins; Biennial Review”, Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 194 / Friday, October 5, 2012 / Rules and Regulations, pg 61084. Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2012-24389]
  4. ↑ U.S. government names SARS a select agent, restricting labs that work on virus
  5. ↑ This refers to reconstructed, replication-competent forms of the 1918 flu pandemic virus containing any portion of the coding regions of all eight gene segments.
  6. ↑ "Select Agents and Toxins List". CDC/USDA Federal Select Agent Program. 26 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  7. ↑ Criteria for removal from the BSAT list were (1) Low potential for causing mortality; (2) Endemicity in the U.S. (animal agents); and (3) Difficulty in producing quantities necessary for high consequence event.

Further reading

  • National Research Council (US) Committee on Laboratory Security and Personnel Reliability Assurance Systems for Laboratories Conducting Research on Biological Select Agents and Toxins. (2009). "Chapter 1. Introduction". Responsible Research with Biological Select Agents and Toxins. Washington DC: National Academies Press.
  • "Home". Federal Select Agent Program. – The FSAP is composed jointly of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Division of Select Agents and Toxins and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service/Agriculture Select Agent Services, and oversees the possession, use and transfer of biological select agents and toxins.
  • "National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB)". Office of Science Policy. 7 April 2020. A federal advisory committee that addresses issues related to biosecurity and dual use research at the request of the United States Government.
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