Legal and Regulatory Classifications
Under United States law, bio-agents which have been declared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the U.S. Department of Agriculture to have the "potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety" are officially defined as "select agents" and possession or transportation of them are tightly controlled as such.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) breaks biological agents into three categories: Category A, Category B, and Category C. Category A agents pose the greatest threat to the US. Criteria for being a Category A agent include high rates of morbidity and mortality; ease of dissemination and communicablitily; ability to cause public panic; and special action require by the public health field to respond. Category A agents include anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers.
Read more about this topic: Biological Agent
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