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Salmonella Case Study

Decent Essays

In 1984, members of the Rajneeshee, a Buddhist cult, created the biological agent salmonella and contaminated the salad bar at Shakey's Pizza in The Dalles, Ore. They also contaminated blue-cheese dressing, table-top coffee creamers and potato salads at 10 local restaurants and a supermarket. They poured it into a glass of water and handed it to a judge. They used the biological agent against the district attorney, a doctor, and a dentist. Their plan was to seize control of the county government by packing polling booths with imported homeless people while making local residents too sick to vote (Time 2001, para.1). That attack was a practice run for a massive attempt to incapacitate Oregon voters by slipping bacteria into the water supply (NY Daily News 2013, para. 18). Is this a biological agent a threat to our homeland today, or not?

A person infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps between 12 and 72 hours after infection. The illness normally lasts 4 to 7 days, and most individuals will …show more content…

One needs only to once again look to the Rajneeshee attack. The Rajneeshees grew the Salmonella organisms in a nutrient rich liquid media and placed it on food items on the salad bars. In this case relatively little had to be done to prepare the biological weapon other than grow it up and sprinkle it on the food (ATSU 2005, para.5). Whereas the number of dead may be small, or nonexistent, the fear the attack would create would likely be immense. The obvious ease and low overhead cost to produce this agent is alarming. A small facility with a hand full of people under the guidance of one trained individual could produce the enough Salmonella to infect hundreds as has already been proven. This example alone shows that the threat of this agent is clear and

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