PRIONS AS A POTENTIAL BIOLOGICAL WEAPON
Prions are defined as protein based infectious particles. Prions have been found to
cause a variety of neurological disorders including variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJ)
disease, Kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker (GSS) disease in humans and Scrapie in sheep and goats, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, and Chronic
Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer and elk. The pathways of infection include either
consumption of prion infected tissue, by contact with contaminated (i.e. iatrogenic
infection) surgical instruments, and recent research indicated airborne transmission via prion particles inhaled and absorbed by nasal epithelial tissue. Studies have demonstrated that prions have been found to persist for years as infectious agents in soils as well as aqueous extracts derived from prion contaminated soils. Cattle and wildlife (e.g. elk) would become infected by grazing on land contaminated by the prions and consumption of prion absorbed soil particles.
Therefore, analysis of the data indicated that prions would be a serious bioweapon
threat either as a strategic weapon intent on massive damage to agricultural commodities (e.g. cattle, meat) or infecting civilians as well as a weapon for terror by bioterrorists. Since the dispersal of prion infected material would remain infectious for years, agricultural land contaminated by prions would reduce agricultural productivity and render the farmland useless. Furthermore, since no present treatment exists for prion based diseases and this agent could be considered an emerging disease with potential for massive production, prion agents would be considered a Class C bioterrorism agent by CDC bioterrorism agent classification (i.e. high infectious, emerging disease, potential for massive production, and no treatment available). One scenario discussed would be the airborne dispersal of prions by bioterrorists which would result in eliciting a high degree of anxiety and social disruption in the civilian population; create severe disruption of cattle based commodity markets and international trade; as well as overload the
resources of the public health sector.
Potential for possible countermeasures and detection of a prion attack is also
discussed. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299901024_PRIONS_AS_A_POTENTIAL_BIOLOGICAL_WEAPON