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. 2003 Jun;4(Suppl 1):S47–S52. doi: 10.1038/sj.embor.embor849

Table 2. Crucial biological agents (Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia, USA).

Disease Pathogen Abused1
Category A (major public health hazards)    
Anthrax Bacillus antracis (B) First World War
    Second World War
    Soviet Union, 1979
    Japan, 1995
    USA, 2001
Botulism Clostridium botulinum (T)
Haemorrhagic fever Marburg virus (V) Soviet bioweapons programme
  Ebola virus (V)
  Arenaviruses (V)
Plague Yersinia pestis (B) Fourteenth-century Europe
    Second World War
Smallpox Variola major (V) Eighteenth-century N. America
Tularemia Francisella tularensis (B) Second World War
Category B (public health hazards)    
Brucellosis Brucella (B)
Cholera Vibrio cholerae (B) Second World War
Encephalitis Alphaviruses (V) Second World War
Food poisoning Salmonella, Shigella (B) Second World War
    USA, 1990s
Glanders Burkholderia mallei (B) First World War
    Second World War
Psittacosis Chlamydia psittaci (B)
Q fever Coxiella burnetti (B)
Typhus Rickettsia prowazekii (B) Second World War
Various toxic syndromes Various bacteria Second World War

Category C includes emerging pathogens and pathogens that are made more pathogenic by genetic engineering, including hantavirus, Nipah virus, tick-borne encephalitis and haemorrhagic fever viruses, yellow fever virus and multidrug-resistant bacteria.

1Does not include time and place of production, but only indicates where agents were applied and probably resulted in casualties, in war, in research or as a terror agent. B, bacterium; P, parasite; T, toxin; V, virus.