Researchers using mail-order materials and a genetic code found on the internet have synthesized the poliomyelitis virus in the laboratory, raising fears that terrorists could do the same, according to a study in the journal Science.
The synthetic virus was virtually indistinguishable from the original, and first paralyzed, then killed mice injected with it, according to the study at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
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Researcher Mr Eckard Wimmer warned that a synthetic polio virus would be valuable as a bioweapon if mass vaccination stops and immunity to the disease is lost. Information on virus genomes is easily accessible online, he said.
"You open the internet and lift out a sequence and go to work and make a virus without ever having seen the virus in your laboratory," he said.
"This work is very important to put society on alert," he added. "This is an inherent danger in biochemistry and scientific research. Society has to deal with it. It won't go away if we close our eyes."
In an accompanying article, Sciencesaid biologists disagreed over how easy it would be to create bioweapons or synthesize bulkier viruses such as smallpox.
"It is a little sobering to see that folks in the chemistry lab can basically create a virus from scratch," said James LeDuc of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
While an epidemic of poliomyelitis is a frightening prospect, scientists believe terrorists might focus their efforts on deadlier viruses, such as smallpox.
Mr Wimmer noted, however, that the smallpox virus is much bigger and more complex than the polio virus and would require more work to synthesize.
The World Health Organization last month certified Europe as free of polio, marking a major step toward the eradication of the disease by 2005. AFP