“Terrorism involves the mind. It doesn’t need to be a killer,” said Dan Colley, director of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases (CTEGD) at UGA. “And in theory, all it would take is somebody with a couple of calves and a centrifuge to make enough Cryptosporidium oocysts to shut down a major city.”

The way our water supply is set up makes us susceptible,” said Boris Striepen, a CTEGD researcher who primarily studies the Cryptosporidium parasite. “It could be put in downstream of a filtration system.” Colley adds that some of the largest cities in America, such as New York, use protected reservoir water that is not filtered well enough to screen out the pathogen.

Still, both Colley and Striepen think Cryptosporidium is way down the list of bioterrorism threats. “Terrorists probably think bigger than that,” said Colley.

But it is top of mind with city and county officials who worry about the safety of the water their residents drink every day? “It is a major threat,” according to Colley. “One could say it terrifies them.”