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Biological Threat Reduction in Central Asia and the Caucasus

Summary of Presentation by Scott A. Levac
March 28, 2006

At the CBW Breakfast Seminar on March 28, 2006, Scott A. Levac, an international project manager from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), gave the first public briefing on the Threat Agent Detection and Response (TADR) Project in Central Asia and Caucasus. Mr. Levac described in detail the objectives of the project, the current level of cooperation with the host countries, and the impediments that remain. Nearly fifty people from U.S. government agencies, think tanks, academic institutions, foreign embassies, and media outlets attended the briefing, which was held at the CNS Washington, DC Office.

The TADR Project is currently in various stages of implementation in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Fiscal Year 2006 funding for the project is approximately $60 million, and the United States expects to spend about $400 million on the program over the next five years. Efforts to extend the project to Russia have run into political roadblocks, however, such as the lack of a bilateral framework agreement and questions about Russian compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention.

According to Levac, the main objectives of the TADR Project are to combat the threat of bioterrorism and prevent the proliferation of biological weapons (BW) technology, pathogens and expertise by:

• Reducing the number of strain collections of especially dangerous pathogens and consolidating them at no more than three facilities in each country, so as to minimize the possibility of these disease agents falling in to the hands of bioterrorists;
• Developing a security system to protect the limited number of repositories;
• Training former bioweapons scientists to use their skills for peaceful purposes; and
• Strengthening the public health infrastructure of the host countries by establishing a state-of-the-art network of infectious-disease surveillance facilities to detect and respond to outbreaks.

In each country participating in the TADR Project, several epidemiological sentinel stations will be connected in real time to a Central Reference Laboratory (CRL). DTRA has commissioned a basic architectural design for the CRL that includes separate wings for work on human and veterinary diseases that meet Biosafety Level 2 or 3 standards. The CRL will also serve as the national repository for especially dangerous pathogens (such as the bacteria that cause anthrax and plague), making it possible to consolidate culture collections that are currently dispersed at numerous field stations at a single, highly secure location. Pathogens isolated in the field will be transported to the CRL for identification and storage.

Each CRL pathogen repository is equipped with advanced security measures such as cipher locks, card readers, and security cameras, as well as a computerized accounting system in which samples of human and veterinary pathogens are catalogued with bar codes. In addition, a newly developed Electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance System (EIDSS) links teams of epidemiologists working in the field with their colleagues at the CRL and with an electronic database in the United States. The TADR Project is equipping the participating countries with special vehicles for the secure transportation of pathogens, as well as data communication devices with Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) capability.

The TADR Project entails extensive scientific cooperation between the United States and the participating countries. One component of the project is the training of local specialists in advanced laboratory diagnostic methods, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Levac also emphasized that the project offers tangible benefits for U.S. infectious-disease and biodefense specialists by providing them with samples of unique strains of pathogenic microorganisms isolated from endemic areas in Central Asia and Caucasus. In return, the United States will send DNA-based diagnostic tools to the CRLs.

The ultimate goal of the TADR Project to establish in each of the host nations an integrated public health and animal health system that will effectively monitor especially dangerous diseases, prevent outbreaks, and detect and mitigate the consequences of possible bioterrorist attacks. Such a capability will not only reduce the risk of "brain drain" of former bioweapons scientists, but the consolidation of highly dangerous pathogens in secure repositories will reduce the risk of theft or diversion by terrorists.

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