Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Safety Precautions and Operating Procedures in an (A)BSL-4 Laboratory: 2. General Practices
Published on: October 3, 2016
The anti-plague system and the Soviet biological warfare program
1Monterey Institute of International Studies, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey, California 93940, USA. rzilinskas@miis.edu
Abstract:
The USSR possessed a unique national public health system that included an agency named "anti-plague system." Its mission was to protect the country from highly dangerous diseases of either natural or laboratory etiology. During the 1960s, the anti-plague system became the lead agency of a program to defend against biological warfare, codenamed Project 5. This responsibility grew and by the middle 1970s came to include undertaking tasks for the offensive biological warfare program, codenamed Ferment. This article describes the anti-plague system's activities relevant to both aspects of the Soviet Union's biological warfare program, offense and defense, and analyzes its contributions to each.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Humoral Immune Responses
Antibody Actions
Neutralization
Antibodies can bind to pathogens, preventing them from infecting host cells. This process...
Defense Against Bacterial Pathogens
Phagocytes
Phagocytes are the frontline soldiers of the immune system. They include neutrophils and macrophages. Neutrophils are the most abundant type of white blood cell and are quickly mobilized to the site of infection. Macrophages are larger cells that patrol...
Biological Methods for Microbial Control
Plague
Smallpox

