Iraq, it said, has mobile germ laboratories that are easy to hide.
But the answer to that is research and to make sure that we're using laboratories that are committed to research".
He said the agency allowed importers to take possession of suspect goods and arrange for their testing by private laboratories that are not approved by the F.D.A.
His panel gives money to more than 150 laboratories that are working on projects like drought-resistant rice and corn with high oil levels.
The smallpox virus exists in laboratories that are overseen by the World Health Organization, although bioterrorism experts believe that clandestine stocks may exist.
The store, called QuestDirect and owned by Quest Diagnostics, the largest diagnostic laboratory in the United States, is one of a growing number of direct-to-consumer laboratories that are opening up across the country and on the Internet.
Also, to help prevent accidental infection or escape of the virus, it is encouraging scientists to work with polio only in laboratories that are rated as P-3, the second strictest level of bio-security.
There will literally be thousands of new scientists who will be coming into the New York City environment over the next 10 years and who are going to be working in brand new laboratories that are being built.
Some researchers are pushing for an outright ban on certain experiments, and for a tight limit on the number of laboratories that are allowed to perform the riskiest work.
"We are comfortable with how we have structured the program and with the agreement we have with the laboratories that are reporting to our testing agency as well as to us," Pilgrim said.
But at the same time, Dr. Osterholm, who advises Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, on bioterrorism issues, said the threats were straining the nation's public health infrastructure, including the nation's network of 81 laboratories that are capable of testing for germ attacks.
