Germ warfare for ecologists

Employing a viral infection to decontaminate anthrax-laden soil might sound alarming but could offer an environmentally friendly solution to just such a bioterror threat.

Researchers at Porton Down’s Defence Science Technology Laboratory, UK, and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, US, tested their viral solution out on Bacillus thuringiensis, a close but harmless bacterial relation of the anthrax pathogen .

The researchers spread B. thuringiensis spores over a patch of land, and then infected the soil with a virus - a so-called bacteriophage - that specifically infects bacterial cells.

The bacteriophage treatment led to a marked reduction in the number of B. thuringiensis organisms in the soil, according to Les Baillie, associate professor at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, who presented his findings in March at the American Society for Microbiology Biodefense meeting in Baltimore, US.

Currently used anthrax decontaminants, such as toxic biocides or gamma radiation, are toxic to man and the environment and are extremely expensive, says Baillie. An ecologically sound, cost-effective strategy for decontaminating a range of environments is therefore urgently needed, he says. The bacteriophage method could offer the solution.