A new Iowa State course is the first in the nation to focus on crop bioterrorism, a subject that has been taken more seriously since Sept. 11.

More than 100 people attended the first seminar of the crop bioterrorism course on Tuesday.

About 12 students are enrolled in the graduate course, Issues Related to Crop Bioterrorism and Food Security, said Forrest Nutter, professor of plant pathology. All the seminars in the course will be open to the public, Nutter said.

Laurence Madden, professor of plant pathology at Ohio State University, presented a speech titled, “The Threat of Plant Pathogens as Weapons Against U.S. Crops,” to a capacity audience in Bessey 210.

Madden said the United States is economically and psychologically vulnerable to crop bioterrorism because of the importance of agriculture in the United States.

“The current concerns are not just a consequence of 9/11,” Madden said.

Madden’s seminar gave an overview of six or seven topics that will come up again in the course, Nutter said.

Terri Howard, junior in entomology, is one of about 15 undergraduate students participating in the seminars to receive one credit.

“I thought it was a really good [introduction] to where the rest of this class is going to go,” Howard said. “It’s a very important topic.”

Madden served on the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences that produced the report “Countering Agricultural Bioterrorism.” The report, available in 2003, said the United States does not have adequate plans for dealing with a crop bioterrorism attack, Madden said.

Crops are vulnerable to viruses, fungi, bacteria and other prokaryotes and nematodes, he said.

Because of a lack of efforts to eradicate major plant diseases, diseases exist in the wild throughout the world, Madden said.

“A terrorist wouldn’t have to break in and steal plant pathogens [from a lab],” he said.

Biological weapons programs around the world have focused on developing wheat stem rust, Madden said. Other diseases that could be used in crop bioterrorism are soybean rust and rice blast, he said.

There is no generally accepted list of which plant pathogens are the most threatening, Madden said.

“We need ways of determining what the most serious risks are to the United States right now,” he said.

As part of their two-credit course, the graduate students will come up with a list of criteria to identify the most important pathogens and insect pests in Iowa, Nutter said.

“They’re doing the same thing on a state level that’s being done on the national level as part of their education,” Nutter said.

The graduate students will meet with each of the speakers for two hours the day after the seminars, he said.

Madden said an individual producer’s chances of being affected by crop bioterrorism are low, but crop bioterrorism will affect producers in the United States.

“The probability of any one of you getting struck by lightning is low,” Madden said. “Yet every year some people die of lightning strikes in the United States.”

Though crop bioterrorism was recognized as a threat before Sept. 11, it has received more federal-level attention since the anthrax attacks that followed Sept. 11, Madden said.

Increased interest at the federal level means opportunities for agricultural bioterrorism preparedness are happening, he said.

“We need to have plans, and fortunately those things are happening,” he said.