The Vollum strain is one of the 89 known strains of the

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...

bacterium (''

Bacillus anthracis ''Bacillus anthracis'' is a gram-positive and rod-shaped bacterium that causes anthrax, a deadly disease to livestock and, occasionally, to humans. It is the only permanent ( obligate) pathogen within the genus ''Bacillus''. Its infection is a ...

''). It is named Vollum after

Roy Vollum Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

, the Canadian-born

bacteriologist A bacteriologist is a microbiologist, or similarly trained professional, in bacteriology -- a subdivision of microbiology that studies bacteria, typically Pathogenic bacteria, pathogenic ones. Bacteriologists are interested in studying and learnin ...

who first isolated it from a cow in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England. The "Vollum 14578" strain was selected for use in the bioweapons trials on

Gruinard Island Gruinard Island ( ; gd, Eilean Ghruinneard) is a small, oval-shaped Scottish island approximately long by wide, located in Gruinard Bay, about halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool. At its closest point to the mainland, it is about offshore ...

, which took place in 1942. Like other forms of

, the Vollum strain becomes more

virulent Virulence is a pathogen's or microorganism's ability to cause damage to a host. In most, especially in animal systems, virulence refers to the degree of damage caused by a microbe to its host. The pathogenicity of an organism—its ability to ca ...

with exposure to more hosts. A sub-strain called Vollum 1B was weaponized and was used in American warheads during the 1960s, but its origin is controversial. One theory that originated from a bio weapons veteran, William C. Patrick III, is that Vollum 1B came from being altered when the microbiologist William A. Boyles inhaled anthrax spores on the job. According to him, the "B" is there to stand for Boyles. A competing theory is based on the fact that during the 1940s and 1950s, a British biological weapons program worked to enhance the virulence of the strain by passing it through a series of monkey hosts, which created a sub-strain of the Vollum strain called "M36". In papers that reference this "M36" sub-strain, it is called the Vollum 1B strain. The M36 Vollum was reliably virulent, as opposed to other newly mutated strains, and thus it was chosen along with other

Vollum Vollum is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Gerd Vollum (1920–2009), Norwegian politician *Howard Vollum (1913–1986), American engineer, scientist and philanthropist See also *Vollum Institute, a research institute in Portl ...

derived strains to be used as tests for the effectiveness of newly developed vaccines against

. In fact, Vollum proved to be so effective, that it continued to be used as a testing strain for developing vaccines for several decades and has continued even to the present. Regardless of its use for good to develop vaccines against anthrax, the Vollum strain is still highly dangerous and is thought to have been the strain that the Iraqi government possessed during the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

. Evidence for this supposition comes from a faction of the

United Nations Special Commission United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was an inspection regime created by the United Nations to ensure Iraq's compliance with policies concerning Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War. Between 1991 and 199 ...

, UNSCOM BW45, which analyzed samples from places that they believed to be dump sites and found 14 positive hits for the Vollum strain in the northern area of Al Hakam's boundary.

References

{{reflist Anthrax