BIOLOGICAL WARFARE

BIOLOGICAL  WARFARE

Biological warfare (also known as germ warfare) is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war.

Biological weapons may be employed in various ways to gain a strategic or tactical advantage over an adversary, either by threats or by actual deployments.

These agents may be lethal or non-lethal, and may be targeted against a single individual, a group of people, or even an entire population.

As a tactical weapon for military use, a significant problem with a biological warfare attack is that it would take days to be effective, and therefore might not immediately stop an opposing force.

Some biological agents (especially smallpox, plague, and tularemia) have the capability of person-to-person transmission via aerosolized respiratory droplets. This feature can be undesirable, as the agent(s) may be transmitted by this mechanism to unintended populations, including neutral or even friendly forces.

While containment of biological warfare transmission is less of a concern for certain criminal or terrorist organizations, it remains a significant concern for the military and civilian populations of virtually all nations.

History

During the 6th century BC, the Assyrians poisoned enemy wells with a fungus that would render the enemy delirious.

In 184 BC, Hannibal of Carthage had clay pots filled with venomous snakes and instructed his soldiers to throw the pots onto the decks of Pergamene ships.

Historical accounts from medieval Europe detail the use of infected animal carcasses, by Mongols, Turks and other groups, to infect enemy water supplies. Prior to the bubonic plague epidemic known as the Black Death.

Mongol and Turkish armies were reported to have catapulted disease-laden corpses into besieged cities.

The last known incident of using plague corpses for biological warfare purposes occurred in 1710, when Russian forces attacked the Swedes by flinging plague-infected corpses over the city walls of Reval.

The British army at least once attempted to use smallpox as a weapon, when they gave contaminated blankets to the Lenape during Pontiac's War (1763–66).

During the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II (1939–1945), the Special Research Units of the Imperial Japanese Army, such as Unit 731, conducted human experimentation on thousands of Chinese, among others.

In its military campaigns, the Japanese used biological warfare on Chinese soldiers and civilians.

Firsthand accounts testify that the Japanese infected civilians through the distribution of plagued foodstuffs and newer estimates suggest over 580,000 victims, largely due to plague and cholera outbreaks.

Diseases such as wheat blast and rice blast were weaponized in aerial spray tanks and cluster

In response to suspected biological warfare development in Nazi Germany, the U.S., U.K., and Canada initiated a biological warfare development program in 1941 that resulted in the weaponization of anthrax, brucellosis, and botulism toxin.

Research carried out in the U.K. during World War II left Gruinard Island in Scotland contaminated with anthrax for the next 48 years.

Offensive

The argument is that biological weapons cannot be controlled: the weapon could backfire and harm the army on the offensive, perhaps having even worse effects than on the target.

An agent like smallpox or other airborne viruses would almost certainly spread worldwide and ultimately infect the user's home country.

Ideal characteristics of a biological agent to be used as a weapon against humans are high infectivity, high virulence, non-availability of vaccines, and availability of an effective and efficient delivery system.

Anti-agriculture

bombs for delivery to enemy watersheds in agricultural regions to initiate epiphytotics (epidemics among plants).

Agents considered for weaponization, or known to be weaponized, include bacteria such as

bacteria

Bacillus anthracis,

Brucella spp.,

Burkholderia mallei,

Burkholderia pseudomallei,

Chlamydophila psittaci,

Coxiella burnetii,

Francisella tularensis,

some of the Rickettsiaceae

Shigella spp.,

Vibrio cholerae, and

Yersinia pestis.

Many viral agents have been studied and/or weaponized, including some of the

Bunyaviridae

Ebolavirus,

many of the Flaviviridae (especially Japanese encephalitis virus),

Machupo virus,

Marburg virus,

Variola virus, and

Yellow fever virus.

Fungal agents that have been studied include Coccidioides spp..

"Yellow Rain"

Toxins

Toxins that can be used as weapons include

ricin,

staphylococcal enterotoxin B,

botulinum toxin,

saxitoxin, and

many mycotoxins.

These toxins and the organisms that produce them are sometimes referred to as select agents.

The late author Sheldon H. Harris in his book "Factories of Death:

The tests were designed to cover “not only trials at sea, but Arctic and tropical environmental tests as well.”

The tests, presumably, were conducted at what research officers designated, but did not name, “satellite sites.”

The tests conducted there were aimed at both human, animal, and plant reaction to BW.

 It is known that tests were undertaken in Cairo, Egypt, Liberia, in South Korea, and in Japan’s satellite province of Okinawa in 1961, or earlier.(Harris, 2002)^[17]

Anti-livestock:
In 1980s Soviet Ministry of Agriculture had successfully developed variants of

foot-and-mouth disease, and

rinderpest against cows,

African swine fever for pigs, and

psittacosis to kill chicken.

These agents were prepared to spray them down from tanks attached to airplanes over hundreds of miles. The secret program was code-named "Ecology".

Entomological warfare

Entomological warfare (EW) is a type of biological warfare that uses insects to attack the enemy.

The concept has existed for centuries and research and development have continued into the modern era.

Essentially, EW exists in three varieties.

One type of EW involves infecting insects with a pathogen and then dispersing the insects over target areas. The insects then act as a vector, infecting any person or animal they might bite.

Another type of EW is a direct insect attack against crops; the insect may not be infected with any pathogen but instead represents a threat to agriculture.

The final method uses uninfected insects, such as bees, wasps, etc., to directly attack the enemy.

Synthetic biological warfare

1. Would demonstrate how to render a vaccine ineffective;
2. Would confer resistance to therapeutically useful antibiotics or antiviral agents;
3. Would enhance the virulence of a pathogen or render a nonpathogen virulent;
4. Would increase transmissibility of a pathogen;
5. Would alter the host range of a pathogen;
6. Would enable the evasion of diagnostic/detection tools;
7. Would enable the weaponization of a biological agent or toxin