Posted on 04/30/2003 2:26:21 PM PDT by FairOpinion
"...The delay in the collection of the members of the victim, according to Manoel Soares, can have intervened with the result of the finding. According to it, the fragmentos of vísceras, when analyzed for the IEC already they showed one high state of destruction of the fabric and, therefore, more susceptible to present bacterial colonies, what of fact it occurred "fabrics present bacterial colonies in relation to which cannot be moved away the possibility to be related with badly state of conservation of the collected material", wrote Manoel Soares in the finding technician. ..."
I'm wondering - if it is antraz, could the flesh samples tested in Belem be the cause of the confusion? That is, they've decomposed, that could effect the germs too? The first tests in Rio Trombetas - were they flesh? Something else too? They would be fresher in the flesh.
I recall that the tests in America after 9/11 were often of the spores attached to the spreading medium - taken from walls, computer key boards, swabs from nasal passages - free of the effects of flesh decomposition.
Bacillus anthracis seems to be the only obligate bacillus that is poisonous to vertebrates. Bacillus. But the article makes it sound as if it would be easy to bioengineer new obligate bacilli. Who knows whether a new such bacillus might not be at least as poisonous as bacillus anthracis?
Bacillus cereus can cause food poisoning and sometimes more serious disease in people with damaged immune systems, but is not considered a major threat. B. thuringiensis kills insects and is widely used as an environmentally friendly pesticide. But just a few changes could turn them into something as deadly as anthrax, the work suggests.
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