title: Threat of a biological terrorist attack on the US food supply: the CDC perspective.
abstract: Deliberate contamination of food with biological agents has already been perpetrated in the USA. The US food supply is increasingly characterised by centralised production and wide distribution of products. Deliberate contamination of a commercial food product could cause an outbreak of disease, with many illnesses dispersed over wide geographical areas. Dependent on the biological agent and contaminated food, such an outbreak could either present as a slow, diffuse, and initially unremarkable increase in sporadic cases, or as an explosive epidemic suddenly producing many illnesses. Preparedness for a bioterrorist event affecting the food supply, therefore, entails augmentation of the traditional public-health infrastructure to enhance disease surveillance, accelerate capacity of laboratory detection, rapidly investigate and control outbreaks, and develop capacity for response to mass-casualty disasters.
authors.affiliation: Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. jsobel@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sobel
authors.forename: Ali S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Swerdlow
mesh_terms: D023482:Bioterrorism; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D003142:Communication; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D014481:United States