PATHOGENIC ORGANISMS THAT FALL UNDER THE PROHIBITION, IN PARTICULARE 
AGENTS IN CLASS 5 OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF ETIOLOGIC AGENTS ON 
THE BASIS OF HAZARD, MAY NOT NECESSARILY BE APPROPRIATE FOR ALL 
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. FOR EXAMPLE SEVERAL VIRUSES OF DOMESTIC 
ANIMALS THAT ARE NOT PRESENT IN NORTH AMERICA ARE ENDEMIC IN 
PARTS OF EUROPE, AND IT WOULD BE UNREASONABLE TO ABSOLUTELY 
PROHIBIT WORKING WITH THEM IN THOSE COUNTRIES. THE DECISION 
AS TO WHICH PATHOGENIC ORGANISMS SHOULD BE CLASSIFIED AS TOO 
DANGEROUS TO USE MUST BE THE RESPONSI BI LI TY OF NATIONAL OR 
REGIONAL AUTHORITIES. 
CLONING VIRAL DNA 
THE EMBO COMMITTEE BELIEVES THAT THE CONTAINMENT CATEGORIZATION 
OF EXPERIMENTS WITH ANIMAL VIRAL DNAS WHICH IS PROPOSED BY THE 
NIH ADVISORY COMMITTEE IS TOO INDISCRIMINATE AND EXCESSIVELY 
STRINGENT CONSIDERING THE PROPOSED CLASSIFICATION OF EXPERIMENTS 
WITH OTHER CLASSES OF DNA AND THE LONGSTANDING, ACCEPTED SAFETY 
PRECAUTIONS FOR HANDLING INTACT VIRUS PARTICLES AND VIRAL NUCLEIC 
ACIDS. THE EMBO COMMITTEE BELIEVES THAT THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION 
FOR PLACING SHOTGUN EXPERIMENTS WITH DNA OF ALL VIRUSES OF WARM 
BLOODED AND COLD BLOODED ANIMALS IN ONE SINGLE CATEGORY CP4 " 
EK1 OR P3 " EK3) BECAUSE THEIR HOST RANGE, VIRULENCE AND 
PATHOGENICITY VARY MARKEDLY. IT SEEMS UNREASONABLE TO REQUIRE 
EQUALLY STRINGENT CONTAINMENT CONDITIONS FOR EXAMPLE FOR DNA OF 
MOUSE MINUTE VIRUS ON THE ONE HAND AND FELINE LEUKAEMIA VIRUS 
AND MASON PFIZER MONKEY VIRUS ON THE OTHER. THE EMBO COMMITTEE 
[Appendix A — 93] 
