The term "biosecurity" has been defined differently by various disciplines. The term was first used by the
agricultural and
environmental communities to describe preventative measures against threats from naturally occurring diseases and pests, later expanded to
introduced species. Australia and New Zealand, among other countries, had incorporated this definition within their legislation by 2010. New Zealand was the earliest adopter of a comprehensive approach with its
Biosecurity Act 1993. In 2001, the US
National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) defined biosecurity as "the sum of risk management practices in defense against biological threats", and its main goal as "protect[ing] against the risk posed by disease and organisms". In 2010, the
World Health Organization (WHO) provided an information note describing biosecurity as a strategic and integrated approach to analysing and managing relevant risks to human, animal and plant life and health and associated risks for the environment. In another document, it describes the aim of biosecurity being "to enhance the ability to protect
human health, agricultural production systems, and the people and industries that depend on them", with the overarching goal being "to prevent, control and/or manage risks to life and health as appropriate to the particular biosecurity sector". Measures taken to counter biosecurity risks typically include compulsory terms of
quarantine, and are put in place to minimise the risk of
invasive pests or
diseases arriving at a specific location that could damage crops and
livestock as well as the wider environment. In general, the term is today taken to include managing
biological threats to people, industries or environment. These may be from foreign or
endemic organisms, but they can also extend to
pandemic diseases and the threat of
bioterrorism, both of which pose threats to
public health. From the late 1990s, in response to the threat of
biological terrorism, the term started to include the prevention of the theft of biological materials from
research laboratories, called "laboratory biosecurity" by WHO. In the US, the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity was created in 2004 to provide biosecurity oversight of "
dual-use research", defined as "biological research with legitimate scientific purpose that may be misused to pose a biological threat to
public health and/or
national security". In 2006, the
National Academy of Sciences defined biosecurity as "security against the inadvertent, inappropriate, or intentional malicious or malevolent use of potentially dangerous biological agents or
biotechnology, including the development, production, stockpiling, or use of biological weapons as well as outbreaks of newly emergent and epidemic disease". A number of nations have developed
biological weapons for military use, and many civilian research projects in medicine have the potential to be used in military applications (dual-use research), so biosecurity
protocols are used to prevent dangerous biological materials from falling into the hands of malevolent parties.
Laboratory program Components of a laboratory biosecurity program include: •
Physical security • Personnel security • Material control and
accountability • Transport security •
Information security • Program management • Biological Security ==Animals and plants==