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Updated April 2004
Biological Facilities
Anti-Plague Scientific Research Institute in Almaty
(former Alma-Ata)
LOCATION: City of Almaty (former Alma-Ata), Kazakhstan
SUBORDINATION: During the Soviet period, the Anti-Plague Scientific Research Institute was under the control of the USSR Ministry of Health. Now it is under the supervision of the National Center for Biotechnology (NCB).
ACTIVITIES: Founded in 1949, the Anti-Plague Scientific Research Institute was developing defensive measure against BW agents during the Soviet period. Today, the institute is developing diagnostic preparations and vaccines.
STATUS: In operation.
HISTORY:
The Anti-Plague Scientific Research Institute was established in 1949 in the suburbs of Almaty (former Alma-Ata) under the authority of the Main Directorate for Quarantine Infections of the USSR Ministry of Health. It was part of the Soviet system for the control of highly pathogenic diseases and operated a Central Asian network of nineteen epidemiological monitoring stations. The institute developed diagnostic tests and vaccines for several infectious diseases, including anthrax, plague, tularemia, brucellosis, cholera, and listeria. In addition to serving civilian needs, the institute was involved in military-related research and development of defensive measure against BW agents. To this end, the institute received Soviet intelligence on biological agents developed by Western militaries, including pathogenic strains modified for military purposes and prepared vaccines and diagnostic preparations against them.
The Almaty Anti-Plague Institute had no direct links with the BW research centers under the Soviet MOD, the Ministry of Agriculture, or Biopreparat, though it participated in exchanges of scientists and technical knowledge. Nevertheless, the possibility that the Anti-Plague Institute was involved in offensive BW developments cannot be ruled out. In 1992, Moscow terminated funding for the institute's research and all military-related work ceased.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Anti-Plague Institute was put under the authority of the Kazakhstani Ministry of Health, Education, and Sport. The institute became the scientific and methodological center for the eight anti-plague stations in Kazakhstan. The Anti-Plague Institute currently is developing diagnostic preparations and vaccines for virulent infectious diseases, conducting epidemiological monitoring, and training specialists. The Anti-Plague Institute was named as one of four World Health Organization regional centers on plague for Central Asia. Although the institute has experienced financial hardship since its transfer to Kazakhstani control in 1993, it has managed to obtain some foreign assistance from the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) and European foundation. The Anti-Plague Institute also possesses pathogen collections, which requires considerable measures for ensuring physical security. To meet this need, the CTR program allocated $4 million for enhancement of its security and also of its extensive agricultural pathogen library at Biomedpreparat in Stepnogorsk. This project has been specifically designed to provide bio-security and bio-safety protection for national strain collections at two facilities in Kazakhstan. As a result of the project, excess infrastructure was removed, and a security parameter was erected around the site (links to CTR website and Carnegie Endowment website).
Key Sources: Gulbarshyn Bozheyeva, Yerlan Kunakbayev, and Dastan Yeleukenov, "Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities in Kazakhstan: Past, Present and Future," Occasional Paper, No. 1, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, June 1999; Jonathan B. Tucker and Raymond A. Zilinskas, "The 1971 Smallpox Epidemic in Aralsk, Kazakhstan, and the Soviet Biological Warfare Program," Occasional Paper No. 9, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, June 2002; Jonathan B. Tucker's speech during the briefing on "Biological Decontamination of Vozrozhdeniye Island: The US-Uzbek Agreement"; BW Materials Security and Transparency, Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) webpage at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Website, <http://www.dtra.mil/ctr/ctr_kazakhstan.html>; Gennadiy Lepeshkin, "Byvshiye obyekty po razrabotke BO v Tsentralnoy Azii," Problemy Nerasprastraneniya, Special Edition, April 2001; Yevgeniy Troitskiy, "Fizicheskaya zashita, uchet i kontrol biomaterialov v NISKhI MON RK," Problemy Nerasprastraneniya, Special Edition, April 2001.
