 The prefixing of “"horizontal environmental"” to the former to generate the acronym HEGAA was first used in a 2018 scientific publication.The acronym HEGAA or its plural HEGAAs has subsequently been used in scientific  defence and general media.Agents such as pathogens, symbionts or synthetic protein assemblages  that can be acquired through horizontal transmission in the environment can potentially be engineered to become HEGAAs.