NEW CLOSTRIDIUM BOTULINUM and terrorism

[Ara Metjian]

In article <sussman.13.3193459C at cvm.msu.edu>, sussman at cvm.msu.edu (Mike
Sussman) wrote:


> >and smallpox is planned to be. If one were to synthesise the Marburg 
> >genome as a set of overlapping oligos (say 1000 50-mers), assemble them 
> >by PCR and then put a powerful promoter in front that would produce an 
> >RNA transcript once inside a mammalian cell, would one be able to create 
> >infectious material? I know that the minus strand of filoviruses is not 
> >infectious, but what if one instead drove production of the plus strand?
> 
> >Is this scenario plausible? If it is at all plausible (leaving aside the 
> >costs--50K dollars say for the oligos), then isn't it irresponsible 
> >having this stuff in the databases  (the same argument applies to 
> >bacterial toxin sequences)? Are attempts to download the Marburg 
> >sequence monitored? If not, why not?
> 
> >And how come the US government worries so much about exporting PGP etc. 
> >when anyone can download the sequences of Marburg, botulin toxin 
> >etc.from a US server?! Shouldn't that count as a munitions export? :-)
> 

   Why would a terrorist want to waste so much time and resources when all
they can do is load up a van of nitrated cow dung and blow up any building
they want. Suppose these terrorists managed to make the biological weapon
of their choice, then what? Would they fly a plane over NYC and spray the
city like they were dusting crops? As food for thought, yes, it is
terrifying, and their point would be well accomplished. As far as
practicality goes, I doubt that this would ever be the way for a terror
group to accomplish whatever it is they want to do. 

   Now, if these people happen to steal a massive amount of the purified
stuff (toxin or virus) well, then, that's a horse of a completely
different color. So, as a question to this group, can the Botulism toxin
or Ebola be spread via water or any common route of transmission???