Work with this organism in the laboratory requires biosafety level 3 containment practices. Since aerosol spread is efficient, and there is no available vaccine or really dependable therapy, B. mallei has been viewed as a potential BW agent. The disease in Equidae in its natural form poses a minimal threat to military personnel. Despite the efficiency of spread in a laboratory setting, glanders has only been a sporadic disease in man, and no epidemics of human disease have been reported. There have been no naturally acquired cases of human glanders in the United States in over 59 years.
Sporadic cases continue to occur in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.
During World War I glanders was believed to have been spread deliberately by agents of the Central Powers to infect large numbers of Russian horses and mules on the Eastern Front. This had an effect on troop and supply convoys as well as on artillery movement which were dependent on horses and mules. The United States studied this agent as a possible BW weapon in 1943-44 but did not weaponize it. The low transmission rates of B. mallei to man from infected horses is exemplified by the fact that in China, during World War II, thirty percent of tested horses were positive for glanders, but human cases were rare. B. mallei exists in nature only in infected susceptible hosts and is not found in water, soil, or plants.