Anthrax-causing bacterium isolated in the United Kingdom. Bacillus anthracis str. A0488

Bacillus anthracis strain A0488. This strain (Vollum; A0488; K4596; ATCC 14578) is the type strain for this species. Strain A0488 was isolated from infected cattle in the United Kingdom in 1935. This strain is highly virulent and was tested as a biological weapon during second world war. In 1942 British bioweapons trials severely contaminated Gruinard Island in Scotland with anthrax spores of the ATCC 14578 strain, thereby rendering it uninhabitable for the following 48 years.