Biosecurity Agent List

Some of the agents that cause a biosecurity concern are listed by the United States Government through the US Select Agent List.

Some of these agents are zoonotic agents, meaning they can infect both humans and animals, while others are agents that can only infect one of humans, animals or plants.

The list of select agents as updated in December 2012 is as follows:

HHS SELECT AGENTS AND TOXINS
Abrin 
Botulinum neurotoxins* 
Botulinum neurotoxin producing species ofClostridium*
Conotoxins (Short, paralytic alpha conotoxins
containing the following amino acid 
sequence X1CCX2PACGX3X4X5X6CX7)
Coxiella burnetii
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus
Diacetoxyscirpenol
Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus1
Ebola virus*
Francisella tularensis*
Lassa fever virus
Lujo virus
Marburg virus*
Monkeypox virus
Reconstructed replication competent forms of the 1918
pandemic influenza virus containing any portion of the
coding regions of all eight gene segments (Reconstructed
1918 Influenza virus)
Ricin
Rickettsia prowazekii
SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
Saxitoxin
South American Haemorrhagic Fever viruses:
Chapare
Guanarito
Junin
Machupo
Sabia
Staphylococcal enterotoxins A,B,C,D,E subtypes
T-2 toxin
Tetrodotoxin
Tick-borne encephalitis complex (flavi) viruses:
Far Eastern subtype
Siberian subtype
Kyasanur Forest disease virus
Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus
Variola major virus (Smallpox virus)*
Variola minor virus (Alastrim)*
Yersinia pestis*

OVERLAP SELECT AGENTS AND TOXINS
Bacillus anthracis *
Bacillus anthracis Pasteur strain
Brucella abortus
Brucella melitensis
Brucella suis
Burkholderia mallei*
Burkholderia pseudomallei*
Hendra virus
Nipah virus
Rift Valley fever virus
Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus

USDA SELECT AGENTS AND TOXINS
African horse sickness virus
African swine fever virus
Avian influenza virus
Classical swine fever virus
Foot-and-mouth disease virus*
Goat pox virus
Lumpy skin disease virus
Mycoplasma capricolum1
Mycoplasma mycoides
Newcastle disease virus
Peste des petits ruminants virus
Rinderpest virus*
Sheep pox virus
Swine vesicular disease virus

USDA PLANT PROTECTION AND QUARANTINE (PPQ) SELECT AGENTS AND TOXINS
Peronosclerospora philippinensis (Peronosclerospora
sacchari)
Phoma glycinicola (formerly Pyrenochaeta glycines)
Ralstonia solanacearum
Rathayibacter toxicus
Sclerophthora rayssiae
Synchytrium endobioticum
Xanthomonas oryzae

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Some agents that are inactive forms of select toxins may be excluded from the requirements of the Select Agent Regulations but can be accessed using the following link: https://www.selectagents.gov/. Some examples of agents that are excluded from the list include:

  • Low pathogenic strains of avian influenza virus
  • South American genotype of eastern equine encephalitis virus
  • West African monkeypox viruses
  • Any strain of Newcastle disease virus that is not virulent
  • All subspecies of Mycoplasma capricolum except capripneumoniae (causes contagious caprine pleuropneumonia)
  • All subspecies of Mycoplasma mycoides except mycoides small colony (causes contagious bovine pleuropneumonia)
  • Any subtypes of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus except for subtypes IAB or IC
  • Vesicular stomatitis virus (exotic) including Indiana subtypes VSV-IN2, VSV-IN3

Sources

  1. https://www.selectagents.gov/
  2. https://www.who.int/
  3. https://www.americanprogress.org/

Further Reading

Last Updated: Jun 16, 2023

Dr. Ananya Mandal

Written by

Dr. Ananya Mandal

Dr. Ananya Mandal is a doctor by profession, lecturer by vocation and a medical writer by passion. She specialized in Clinical Pharmacology after her bachelor's (MBBS). For her, health communication is not just writing complicated reviews for professionals but making medical knowledge understandable and available to the general public as well.

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