Ricin immunogenic in mice, rabbits, and humans. It has completed two successful clinical trials. Ricin has been involved in a number of incidents. In 1978, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by Bulgarian secret police who surreptitiously shot him on a London street with a modified umbrella using compressed gas to fire a tiny pellet contaminated with ricin into his leg. He died in a hospital a few days later and his body was passed to a special poison branch of the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) that discovered the pellet during an autopsy. The prime suspects were the Bulgarian
Ricin would generate enough heat to denature it. Once deployed, an area contaminated with ricin remains dangerous until the bonds between chain A or B have been broken, a process that takes two or three days. In contrast, anthrax spores may remain lethal for decades. Jan van Aken, a German expert on biological weapons, explained in a report for The Sunshine Project that Al Qaeda’s experiments with ricin suggest their inability to produce botulinum or anthrax. A biopharmaceutical company called Soligenix, Inc. has licensed an anti-ricin vaccine called RiVax™ from Vitetta et al. at UT Southwestern. The vaccine is safe and