BBC
December 6

US officials are beginning work to try and secure old germ warfare labs in Uzbekistan, once home to the largest biological testing ground in the whole of the Soviet Union.

Officials state that they are acting to lessen the chances of anthrax and other pathogens being stolen as weapons by countries or groups it sees as hostile to American interests.

Although Uzbekistan's major testing site has already been dismantled, there are believed to be numerous others that could present a risk.

"Any lab in the world that has pathogens, where those pathogens are not properly secured, is a weak spot in the defence," US State Department microbiologist Geoffrey Stewart told BBC World Service's Analysis programme.

"Therefore a terrorist could walk into that site, they could acquire those strains, walk out - and because of transportation practices now, that culture could be anywhere in the world within 48 hours."

Endemic diseases

Uzbekistan was so central to Soviet bio-warfare research, largely because both anthrax and Bubonic plague are endemic to the country - the plague pandemic that wiped out nearly half of Europe in the 17th Century is believed to have begun in the mountains of Central Asia.

At the height of the Cold War, the biggest anthrax testing ground in the whole USSR was on a remote island in the Aral sea, while Central Asia was the centre of a web of disease-research stations known as the Anti-Plague System.

It consisted of six institutes - five in Russia, one in Kyrgyzstan - about 200-300 general stations and headquarters that were strategically spread over the Soviet Union," confirmed Tina Teshenko, a researcher at the Monterey Institute in Kazakhstan.

Initially, the Anti-Plague System was designed to experiment with endemic diseases and the exotic diseases in neighbouring countries.

But in the 1960s, the system became a component of the Soviet Biological Weapons programme - and it is this that is causing the US to continue to view Uzbekistan with concern.

Washington wants to include Uzbek facilities in its campaign to make safe pathogen collections all over the world.

Keep working

"We do know that there are certain institutes in Uzbekistan that maintain dangerous pathogens," Dr Stewart told Analysis.

"The Centre for Zoonotic Diseases, the former anti-plague institutes - those are all examples. Any place that has veterinary diseases or human diseases is a potential source of pathogenic organisms."

In particular, the State Department is concerned about viral diseases such as anthrax and tularaemia.

"But it's very likely that organisms like plague... are the ones that are of highest risk," Dr Stewart added.

The US is also concerned about the 4,000 specialist scientists in Uzbekistan.

The scientists earn as little as $10 a month and the Americans fear they could be tempted to sell expertise, or even pathogens, to the highest bidder.

As a result, since the mid 1990s, Washington has spent half a billion dollars keeping former Soviet scientists employed.

"There are a number of research projects that the United States Government has funded in the former Soviet states," Dr Stewart said.

"Those research projects are required to meet guidelines for pathogen security if they utilise pathogens.

"That has been our first point of contact - those individuals we already worked with and were funding. But we're beginning to branch out now, and we're continually being asked to fund additional projects."

---