Roles and competences

Major biological incidents are rare. However, the consequences for public health may be severe if hazardous biological agents are released. Recognising, assessing and managing these events presents challenges for all responsible parties, including the police, fire brigade and public health services. The Robert Koch Institute therefore has the responsibility to provide advice and support to the federal public health authorities as well as police forces and fire brigades in dealing with bioterrorist attacks.

For this purpose, the Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens (ZBS) holds expertise on substances relevant to biological incidents as well as expertise required for clinical and epidemiological management, situation assessment and management and laboratory diagnostics.

Jointly with the responsible authorities on site, following steps will be taken in the event of an incident:

• conducting a risk assessment of the biological agent
• providing guidance on the risk area and on decontamination of first responders
• on-site sampling of biological agents
• supporting police crime scene work in joint evidence teams
• organising safe sample transfers to the RKI with local first responders
• detecting and characterising the biological agent in the RKI laboratories
• enabling the forensic analysis of the contaminated evidence

Operational Units

If a bioterrorist attack is suspected, specialised forces of the RKI are available to support the responsible authorities by telephone (24/7) or directly on site (deployment time within 1 hour) with the following operational units:

Biological Incident Command

• Participation in the joint operational leadership of police, fire brigade and public health services
• Strategic decision-making and coordination of the operational units of the RKI
• Situational assessment and guidance on risk area, extent of damage etc.
• Advice on protective measures for first responders in the contaminated area
• Coordination of the joint on-site operational procedures

Task Force for Biological Incidents

• Participation in joint evidence teams with members of the criminal investigation department
• Provide police forces with advice on evidence prioritisation and management
• Conduct environmental sampling to identify highly pathogenic agents
• Liaison with RKI laboratories for agent diagnostics and forensic investigation of contaminated evidence
• Support of the public health services during inspection of the contaminated area

Advisory Group for Biological Incidents

• Participation in police and public health service command teams
• Risk assessment of biological agents, for example on procurement and release
• Advice on the tactical approach to joint incident management
• Advice on clinical and epidemiological management
• Guidance on decontamination methods

Laboratory analysis

The ZBS is able to identify and characterise all agents relevant to biological terrorism:

The laboratories for highly pathogenic viruses (ZBS1), highly pathogenic microorganisms (ZBS2) and biological toxins (ZBS3) can detect and characterise all bioterrorism-relevant agents in both clinical and environmental samples. 

In addition, advanced light and electron microscopy (ZBS4) enables rapid microscopic analysis of unknown samples and proteomics and spectroscopy (ZBS6) allows further analysis of biological substances using modern vibrational and mass spectrometric methods.

Specialised agency in the federal German CBRN response unit (UnterstützungsverBund CBRN)

The management of chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear (CBRN) incidents requires standardised planning and involvement of specialists with expertise of the specific hazardous substances.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection therefore agreed to strengthen the national response capabilities to such scenarios and to establish a CBRN Support Network (UVB-CBRN).

With the launch of the UVB-CBRN on 1st June 2021, the Robert Koch Institute was appointed the non-police authority with responsibility for biological incidents.