Table 1.

Zoonotic pathogens for potential use in bioterrorism

Disease	Pathogen	Previously used by terrorists	Clinical signs	US CDC category
Anthrax	Bacillus anthracis	Yes	Respiratory, gastrointestinal, or neurological symptoms	A
Plague	Yersinia pestis	Yes	Respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms	A
Tularemia	Francisella tularensis	Yes	Respiratory symptoms	A
Viral hemorrhagic fevers	Ebola virus and Marburg virus (filovirus)	No	Neurological and respiratory symptoms	A
Brucellosis	Brucella spp.	No	Arthralgia, myalgia, and undulant fever	B
Salmonellosis	Salmonella spp.	Yes	Gastrointestinal symptoms	B
Colibacillosis	Escherichia coli O157:H7	No	Gastrointestinal symptoms	B
Shigellosis	Shigella dysenteriae	Yes	Gastrointestinal symptoms	B
Glanders	Burkholderia mallei	Yes	Respiratory symptoms	B
Melioidosis	Burkholderia pseudomallei	No	Respiratory symptoms	B
Psittacosis	Chlamydophila psittaci	No	Respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms	B
Q fever	Coxiella burnetii	Yes	Respiratory symptoms	B
Typhus fever	Rickettsia prowazekii	No	Neurological and respiratory symptoms	B
Viral encephalitis	Alphavirus	No	Neurological symptoms	B
Cholera	Vibrio cholerae	Yes	Gastrointestinal symptoms	B
Cryptosporidiosis	Cryptosporidium parvum	No	Gastrointestinal symptoms	B
Nipah virus encephalitis	Nipah virus	No	Neurological and respiratory symptoms	C
Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS)	Hantavirus	No	Renal and respiratory symptoms	C
Severe acute respiratory syndrome	SARS coronavirus	No	Respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms	None
Influenza	Swine influenza and avian influenza virus	No	Respiratory symptoms	None
Rabies	Rabies virus	No	Neurological symptoms	None
West Nile encephalitis	West Nile virus	No	Neurological symptoms	None
Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome	Streptococcus suis	No	Neurological symptoms	None