Biological Select Agents and Toxins (BSAT)

Biological Select Agents and Toxins (BSATs) are a specific group of pathogens, toxins and substances of biological origin that pose not only a severe threat to human, plant, and animal health, but also have the potential to be used deliberately to cause disease, prompt fear, or destroy agricultural or animal products as biological warfare or bioterrorism agents. BSATs may cause a disruption of the thyroid system either directly or indirectly through the systemic effects they induce. Bioregulator agents, toxins and microbiological infections, which could induce acute, subacute or chronic thyroiditis, among others, could cause thyroid functional alteration. The thyroiditis induced through colonization of thyroid gland by these pathogen agents (induced mainly by virus or bacteria) or as a particular manifestation of a systemic disease, results in inflammation of the thyroid gland that can sometimes degenerate into destructive thyrotoxicosis. Otherwise, the possibility of their use as terrorist or criminal agents makes it necessary to know and recognize the implications arising from the intended use of these agents on the thyroid system. This chapter will refer to the main agents that induce thyroid disruption and the known mechanisms through which these effects are induced.

Keywords: Biological warfare agents, biorregulators, bioterrorism agents, thyroiditis.