Chicago ? Scientists have mapped distinctive traits in the genetic sequence of the anthrax strain used in last fall’s Florida bioterrorist attack, demonstrating that the new science of genomics can identify “fingerprints” in deadly microbes and help track down those who use them as weapons, scientists reported Thursday.

The new study is the first time the genetic code of an individual strain of bacteria has been completely sequenced, and it introduces genomics an outgrowth of the Human Genome Project as a crime-fighting tool.

Although the genomic sequence of the bacteria does not pinpoint the origin of the Florida strain, it confirms previous scientific reports that it was derived from the Ames strain, developed by the U.S. military. It had not been genetically altered to make it more virulent or resistant to antibiotics.

The results came on a day when the Federal Reserve in Washington announced that mail there had tested positive for anthrax contamination, a mysterious but vivid reminder of the anthrax attacks last year that killed five people and revealed the mail to be a viable delivery system for biological weapons. More reliable testing of that mail was under way.

The new research published Thursday shows one of the tools science is developing to counter anthrax and other bioweapons. Just as DNA fingerprinting emerged in the 1980s from molecular biology labs to revolutionize criminal law, genomics promises to extend the techniques of genetic identification for forensics.

It even could provide authorities with such a potent technique to quickly identify biological weapons that it would act as a deterrent to future attacks.

“Genome-based analysis will provide a powerful new tool for investigating unexpected disease outbreaks whether bioterrorism attacks or natural outbreaks of new pathogens,” said Claire Fraser, president of the Institute for Genomic Research, or TIGR, in Rockville, Md., which collaborated with scientists at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff in the anthrax sequencing study.

In nature, anthrax is a disease that afflicts livestock. The Ames strain was isolated from a dead Texas cow in 1981.