http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/07/11/1057783353092.html

Australia a bioterrorism target, expert warns

July 12 2003
By Stephen Cauchi
Science Reporter
 

The man at the forefront of tackling America's anthrax scare has warned that bioterrorism attacks will continue and that Australia will be a target.

He also said telling the difference between diseases such as SARS and a bioterrorist attack would present major challenges.

Bruce Budowle, a senior scientist at the FBI's forensic science laboratory in Washington, said bioterrorists could hit crops, plants, water and food supplies and livestock as well as humans.

"All these things could be potential targets," he said.

Something like foot-and-mouth, which cost the British economy $20 billion in a recent outbreak, would be an effective bioweapon and would cause much damage to Australia, he said.

"Imagine if someone did something like that. You have to be vigilant," he told journalists on the closing day of the Congress of Genetics in Melbourne.

"It doesn't take much to cause that level of concern. If it happened in Australia it would shut down the shipment of beef out of the country.

"That's the first question that's asked these days - was SARS a bioterrorism event."

Dr Budowle said bioterrorism had been around since the ancient Romans put carrion in the water supply of their enemies.

The Tartars of the 14th century catapulted the corpses of plague victims into the besieged Genoese city of Kaffa, he said.

"There have been many examples of mankind using these kinds of weapons and they will probably continue as long as man is around," Dr Budowle said.

He said that despite developments in biotechnology, there were limitations on what bioterrorists could get away with. Any widespread diseases could eventually infect them, he said.

"Any time you create weapons of such seriousness, it can boomerang, backfire and actually kill yourself. There's some balance there."

He urged caution against vaccinating emergency workers such as police in advance of bioterrorist attacks as there was a small risk such vaccines could harm or kill.

The Federal Department of Health, which imported the smallpox vaccine last year, is still deciding who should be vaccinated. Tens of thousands of American health and emergency personnel already are.

"Each person has to weigh it up for themselves. And sometimes that's a very personal thing rather than a government policy," he said. "I myself wouldn't be taking the smallpox vaccine at this time."

He said bioterrorists might have a different profile to normal terrorists. They did not necessarily have to have a science background, he said.

"A lot of these (normal) terrorists like to have this sensationalism and know that they've done something at the moment. A bioterrorist is different because they're trying to do something that you won't see until a later date. It will infect individuals, then the disease will manifest itself and then the person will die. It won't be fanfare of the moment . . ."

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