In United States law, select agents are biological agents or biological toxins which have been declared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to have the "potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety". The Centers for Disease Control administers the Select Agent Program (SAP), which regulates the laboratories which may possess, use, or transfer select agents within the United States. The SAP was established to satisfy requirements of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, which were enacted in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent 2001 anthrax attacks.
The active use of select agents in biomedical research prompts concerns about dual use. The federal government has created the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, a critical component of a set of federal initiatives to promote biosecurity in life science research. This advisory board is composed of government, education and industry experts who provide policy recommendations on ways to minimize the possibility that knowledge and technologies emanating from vitally important biological research will be misused to threaten public health or national security.
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Central European tick-borne encephalitis Far Eastern tick-borne encephalitis Kyasanur Forest disease Omsk hemorrhagic Fever Russian spring and summer encephalitis
Bacillus anthracis
Brucella abortus
Brucella melitensis
Brucella suis
Burkholderia mallei (formerly Pseudomonas mallei)
Burkholderia pseudomallei (formerly Pseudomonas pseudomallei)
Hendra virus
Nipah virus
Rift Valley fever virus
Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus
African horse sickness virus
African swine fever virus
Akabane virus
Avian influenza virus (highly pathogenic)
Bluetongue virus (exotic)
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent
Camel pox virus
Classical swine fever virus
Ehrlichia ruminantium (Heartwater)
Foot-and-mouth disease virus
Goat pox virus
Japanese encephalitis virus
Lumpy skin disease virus
Malignant catarrhal fever virus (Alcelaphine herpesvirus type 1)
Menangle virus
Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae (contagious caprine pleuropneumonia)
Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides small colony (Mmm SC) (contagious bovine pleuropneumonia)
Peste des petits ruminants virus
Rinderpest virus
Sheep pox virus
Swine vesicular disease virus
Vesicular stomatitis virus (exotic): Indiana subtypes VSV-IN2, VSV-IN3
Virulent Newcastle disease virus 1
Peronosclerospora philippinensis (Peronosclerospora sacchari)
Phoma glycinicola (formerly Pyrenochaeta glycines)
Ralstonia solanacearum race 3, biovar 2
Rathayibacter toxicus
Sclerophthora rayssiae var zeae
Synchytrium endobioticum
Xanthomonas oryzae
Xylella fastidiosa (citrus variegated chlorosis strain)