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- Porton Down faces criminal inquiry into airman's death
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- THE Ministry of Defence has disclosed that it is creating
lethal genetically modified organisms in a secret programme to prepare
defences against a new era of germ warfare. Tests of the potential of "GM
supergerms" are being conducted at Porton Down, the headquarters of
the Government's chemical and biological defence establishment. The research
uses similar genetic engineering techniques to those that to create GM
foods sold in supermarkets. It was launched to study the implications should
such technology be developed for weapons of mass destruction by an enemy
power.
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- The theoretical threat posed by GM germs has alarmed
the MoD. Genetic techniques can make biological weapons more dangerous
to humans and less easy to detect or counter It is already feasible to
use genetic engineering to introduce a lethal toxin into a pathogen - an
organism that attacks humans - to increase its killing potential. Organisms
can also be modified to resist antidotes.
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- In future it may be possible to wipe out an army with
mutant germs that would then be made benign by a genetic flaw, enabling
an enemy force to invade in safety. An enemy may be more ready to deploy
such "controllable" GM weapons than existing organisms such as
anthrax. Ultimately, it may be possible to develop an "ethnic destruction"
germ, that is, an organism that would attack the genes of a particular
race.
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- In January a study by the British Medical Association
warned that a plague or toxin designed to kill specific racial groups could
be only five to 10 years away. Britain has signed treaties prohibiting
the creation of biological weapons for military purposes. The sole reason
for the research at Porton Down is to develop protection measures against
any threat posed to the population or Servicemen.
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- An MoD spokesman said: "To perform this task our
scientists have to be at the cutting edge of biological scientific knowledge,
including the techniques of genetics." The Government has kept the
experimental research secret but The Telegraph has learned that it has
been going on for at least five years
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