Appendix B of the NIH Guidelines includes those biological agents known to infect humans as well as selected animal agents that may pose theoretical risks if inoculated into humans. Included are lists of representative genera and species known to be pathogenic; mutated, recombined, and non-pathogenic species and strains are not considered. Non-infectious life cycle stages of parasites are excluded.
Appendix B reflects the current state of knowledge and should be considered a resource document. Included are the more commonly encountered agents and is not meant to be all-inclusive. Information on agent risk assessment may be found in the Agent Summary Statements of the CDC/NIH publication, Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories.
Table 1. Basis for the Classification of Biohazardous Agents by Risk Group (RG)
| Risk Group 1 (RG1) | Agents that are not associated with disease in healthy adult humans |
| Risk Group 2 (RG2) | Agents that are associated with human disease which is rarely serious and for which preventive or therapeutic interventions are often available |
| Risk Group 3 (RG3) | Agents that are associated with serious or lethal human disease for which preventive or therapeutic interventions may be available (high individual risk but low community risk) |
| Risk Group 4 (RG4) | Agents that are likely to cause serious or lethal human disease for which preventive or therapeutic interventions are not usually available (high individual risk and high community risk) |
Refer to Appendix B of the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules for a current list of microorganisms in each Risk Group.
