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Select agent

Controlled biological agents in the United States

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
4 min read
Source updated June 17, 2026

Under United States law, biological select agents or toxins (BSATs), or simply select agents for short, are bio-agents which (since 1997) have been declared by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to have the "potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety". The agents are divided into (1) HHS select agents and toxins affecting humans; (2) USDA select agents and toxins affecting agriculture; and (3) overlap select agents and toxins affecting both.

01Regulation

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have regulated the laboratories which may possess, use, or transfer select agents within the United States under the SAP since 2001. The SAP was established to satisfy requirements of the Patriot Act of 2001 and the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, which were enacted in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent 2001 anthrax attacks.

Using select agents in biomedical research prompts concerns about dual use. The federal government created the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity to promote biosecurity in life science research. It is composed of government, education and industry experts who provide policy recommendations on ways to minimize the possibility that knowledge and technologies emanating from biological research will be misused to threaten public health or national security.

02Violations

In July 2015, Gregory E. Demske, chief counsel to the inspector general in the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), testified that 30 civil violations of the SAP rules had been identified in the past 13 years, and that violators had paid about $2.4 million in fines. He explained that when the CDC's Division of Select Agents and Toxins detects possible SAP misconduct by an HHS worker, it coordinates with the OIG to gather facts. If it concludes that a civil violation might have occurred, it turns the case over to the OIG for possible enforcement. But if it suspects a crime, it pursues the matter with the FBI. Since passage of the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, the OIG had received 68 referrals from the CDC for possible Select Agent enforcement and found violations in 30 of those cases. Notices of violation were sent to 5 federal entities, 3 universities, and 2 other private organizations, all unnamed in his testimony. Demske remarked that no federal agencies had been fined for SAP violations.

03List of select agents

Tier 1 BSATs are indicated by an asterisk (*).

HHS select agents and toxins

Bacteria

Viruses

Toxins

As of April 2025 these biological agents and toxins are considered to "have the potential to pose a severe threat to both human and animal health, to plant health, or to animal and plant products".

Overlap select agents and toxins

Bacteria

Viruses

USDA select agents and toxins

For animals

Bacteria
Viruses

For plants

Bacteria
Fungi or fungus-like pathogens

04List of former select agents

Select agent regulations were revised in October 2012 to remove 19 BSATs from the list (7 Human and Overlap Agents and 12 Animal Agents).

Human and overlap agents

Animal agents

Plant agents

Watch videos about Select agentExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Select agent”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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