Biological warfare

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Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of

Biological warfare is subject to a forceful normative prohibition.^[2][3] Offensive biological warfare in international armed conflicts is a war crime under the 1925 Geneva Protocol and several international humanitarian law treaties.^[4][5] In particular, the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) bans the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological weapons.^[6][7] In contrast, defensive biological research for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes is not prohibited by the BWC.^[8]

Biological warfare is distinct from warfare involving other types of

Biological weapons may be employed in various ways to gain a strategic or tactical advantage over the enemy, either by threats or by actual deployments. Like some chemical weapons, biological weapons may also be useful as area denial weapons. 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. They may be developed, acquired, stockpiled or deployed by nation states or by non-national groups. In the latter case, or if a nation-state uses it clandestinely, it may also be considered bioterrorism.^[9]

Biological warfare and chemical warfare overlap to an extent, as the use of toxins produced by some living organisms is considered under the provisions of both the BWC and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Toxins and psychochemical weapons are often referred to as midspectrum agents. Unlike bioweapons, these midspectrum agents do not reproduce in their host and are typically characterized by shorter incubation periods.^[10]

Overview

A biological attack could conceivably result in large numbers of

A nation or group that can pose a credible threat of mass casualty has the ability to alter the terms under which other nations or groups interact with it. When indexed to weapon mass and cost of development and storage, biological weapons possess destructive potential and loss of life far in excess of nuclear, chemical or conventional weapons. Accordingly, biological agents are potentially useful as strategic deterrents, in addition to their utility as offensive weapons on the battlefield.[12]

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

Antiquity and Middle Ages

Rudimentary forms of biological warfare have been practiced since antiquity.

Biological agents were extensively used in many parts of Africa from the sixteenth century AD, most of the time in the form of poisoned arrows, or powder spread on the war front as well as poisoning of horses and water supply of the enemy forces.[22]^[23] In Borgu, there were specific mixtures to kill, hypnotize, make the enemy bold, and to act as an antidote against the poison of the enemy as well. The creation of biologicals was reserved for a specific and professional class of medicine-men.^[23]

18th to 19th century

During the French and Indian War, in June 1763 a group of Native Americans laid siege to British-held Fort Pitt.^[24][25] The commander of Fort Pitt, Simeon Ecuyer, ordered his men to take smallpox-infested blankets from the infirmary and give it to a Lenape delegation during the siege.^[26][27][28] A reported outbreak that began the spring before left as many as one hundred Native Americans dead in Ohio Country from 1763 to 1764. It is not clear whether the smallpox was a result of the Fort Pitt incident or the virus was already present among the Delaware people as outbreaks happened on their own every dozen or so years^[29] and the delegates were met again later and seemingly had not contracted smallpox.^[30][31][32] During the American Revolutionary War, Continental Army officer George Washington mentioned to the Continental Congress that he had heard a rumor from a sailor that his opponent during the Siege of Boston, General William Howe, had deliberately sent civilians out of the city in the hopes of spreading the ongoing smallpox epidemic to American lines; Washington, remaining unconvinced, wrote that he "could hardly give credit to" the claim. Washington had already inoculated his soldiers, diminishing the effect of the epidemic.^[33][34] Some historians have claimed that a detachment of the Corps of Royal Marines stationed in New South Wales, Australia, deliberately used smallpox there in 1789.^[35] Dr Seth Carus states: "Ultimately, we have a strong circumstantial case supporting the theory that someone deliberately introduced smallpox in the Aboriginal population."^[36][37]

World War I

By 1900 the

In 1969, US President Richard Nixon decided to unilaterally terminate the offensive biological weapons program of the US, allowing only scientific research for defensive measures.^[54] This decision increased the momentum of the negotiations for a ban on biological warfare, which took place from 1969 to 1972 in the United Nation's Conference of the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva.^[55] These negotiations resulted in the Biological Weapons Convention, which was opened for signature on 10 April 1972 and entered into force on 26 March 1975 after its ratification by 22 states.^[55]

Despite being a party and depositary to the BWC, the Soviet Union continued and expanded its massive offensive biological weapons program, under the leadership of the allegedly civilian institution Biopreparat.^[56] The Soviet Union attracted international suspicion after the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax leak killed approximately 65 to 100 people.^[57]

1948 Arab–Israeli War

According to historians

International restrictions on biological warfare began with the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which prohibits the use but not the possession or development of biological and chemical weapons in international armed conflicts.^[39][60] Upon ratification of the Geneva Protocol, several countries made reservations regarding its applicability and use in retaliation.^[61] Due to these reservations, it was in practice a "no-first-use" agreement only.^[62]

The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) supplements the Geneva Protocol by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological weapons.^[6] Having entered into force on 26 March 1975, the BWC was the first multilateral disarmament treaty to ban the production of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.^[6] As of March 2021, 183 states have become party to the treaty.^[63] The BWC is considered to have established a strong global norm against biological weapons,^[64] which is reflected in the treaty's preamble, stating that the use of biological weapons would be "repugnant to the conscience of mankind".^[65] The BWC's effectiveness has been limited due to insufficient institutional support and the absence of any formal verification regime to monitor compliance.^[66]

In 1985, the Australia Group was established, a multilateral export control regime of 43 countries aiming to prevent the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.^[67]

In 2004, the

Biological weapons are difficult to detect, economical and easy to use, making them appealing to terrorists. The cost of a biological weapon is estimated to be about 0.05 percent the cost of a conventional weapon in order to produce similar numbers of mass casualties per kilometer square.^[69] Moreover, their production is very easy as common technology can be used to produce biological warfare agents, like that used in production of vaccines, foods, spray devices, beverages and antibiotics. A major factor in biological warfare that attracts terrorists is that they can easily escape before the government agencies or secret agencies have even started their investigation. This is because the potential organism has an incubation period of 3 to 7 days, after which the results begin to appear, thereby giving terrorists a lead.

A technique called Clustered, Regularly Interspaced, Short Palindromic Repeat (

In 2002, when CNN went through Al-Qaeda's (AQ's) experiments with crude poisons, they found out that AQ had begun planning ricin and cyanide attacks with the help of a loose association of terrorist cells.[71] The associates had infiltrated many countries like Turkey, Italy, Spain, France and others. In 2015, to combat the threat of bioterrorism, a National Blueprint for Biodefense was issued by the Blue-Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.^[72] Also, 233 potential exposures of select biological agents outside of the primary barriers of the biocontainment in the US were described by the annual report of the Federal Select Agent Program.^[73]

Though a verification system can reduce bioterrorism, an employee, or a lone terrorist having adequate knowledge of a bio-technology company's facilities, can cause potential danger by utilizing, without proper oversight and supervision, that company's resources. Moreover, it has been found that about 95% of accidents that have occurred due to low security have been done by employees or those who had a security clearance.^[74]

Entomology

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. EW has been used in battle by Japan and several other nations have developed and been accused of using an entomological warfare program. EW may employ insects in a direct attack or as vectors to deliver a

Theoretically, novel approaches in biotechnology, such as synthetic biology could be used in the future to design novel types of biological warfare agents.[77]^[78][79][80]

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 the 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.

Most of the biosecurity concerns in synthetic biology are focused on the role of DNA synthesis and the risk of producing genetic material of lethal viruses (e.g. 1918 Spanish flu, polio) in the lab.^[81][82][83] Recently, the CRISPR/Cas system has emerged as a promising technique for gene editing. It was hailed by The Washington Post as "the most important innovation in the synthetic biology space in nearly 30 years."^[84] While other methods take months or years to edit gene sequences, CRISPR speeds that time up to weeks.^[6] Due to its ease of use and accessibility, it has raised a number of ethical concerns, especially surrounding its use in the biohacking space.^[84][85][86]

By target

Anti-personnel

Ideal characteristics of a biological agent to be used as a weapon against humans are high

The primary difficulty is not the production of the biological agent, as many biological agents used in weapons can be manufactured relatively quickly, cheaply and easily. Rather, it is the weaponization, storage, and delivery in an effective vehicle to a vulnerable target that pose significant problems.

For example,

.

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

Coronaviruses, Marburg virus, Variola virus, and yellow fever virus. Fungal agents that have been studied include Coccidioides spp.^[56][88]

Toxins that can be used as weapons include

staphylococcal enterotoxin B, botulinum toxin, saxitoxin, and many mycotoxins. These toxins and the organisms that produce them are sometimes referred to as select agents. In the United States, their possession, use, and transfer are regulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

's Select Agent Program.

The former

US biological warfare program

categorized its weaponized anti-personnel bio-agents as either Lethal Agents (Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis, Botulinum toxin) or Incapacitating Agents (Brucella suis, Coxiella burnetii, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, Staphylococcal enterotoxin B).

Anti-agriculture

Anti-crop/anti-vegetation/anti-fisheries

See also: United States herbicidal warfare research

The United States developed an anti-crop capability during the

rice blast were weaponized in aerial spray tanks and cluster bombs for delivery to enemy watersheds in agricultural regions to initiate epiphytotic (epidemics among plants). On the other hand, some sources report that these agents were stockpiled but never weaponized.^[89] When the United States renounced its offensive biological warfare program in 1969 and 1970, the vast majority of its biological arsenal was composed of these plant diseases.^[90]

Enterotoxins and Mycotoxins were not affected by Nixon's order.

Though herbicides are chemicals, they are often grouped with biological warfare and chemical warfare because they may work in a similar manner as

biotoxins

or bioregulators. The Army Biological Laboratory tested each agent and the Army's Technical Escort Unit was responsible for the transport of all chemical, biological, radiological (nuclear) materials.

Biological warfare can also specifically target plants to destroy crops or defoliate vegetation. The United States and Britain discovered plant growth regulators (i.e., herbicides) during the Second World War, which were then used by the UK in the counterinsurgency operations of the Malayan Emergency. Inspired by the use in Malaysia, the US military effort in the Vietnam War included a mass dispersal of a variety of herbicides, famously Agent Orange, with the aim of destroying farmland and defoliating forests used as cover by the Viet Cong.^[91] Sri Lanka deployed military defoliants in its prosecution of the Eelam War against Tamil insurgents.^[92]

Anti-livestock

During World War I, German saboteurs used

Entente forces.^[93] One of these German saboteurs was Anton Dilger. Also, Germany itself became a victim of similar attacks – horses bound for Germany were infected with Burkholderia by French operatives in Switzerland.^[94]

During World War II, the U.S. and Canada secretly investigated the use of rinderpest, a highly lethal disease of cattle, as a bioweapon.^[93][95]

In the 1980s Soviet Ministry of Agriculture had successfully developed variants of

African swine fever for pigs, and psittacosis to kill the 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".^[56]

During the

Mau Mau Uprising in 1952, the poisonous latex of the African milk bush was used to kill cattle.^[96]

Defensive operations

Main article: Biodefense

Medical countermeasures

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2011)

In 2010 at The Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and Their Destruction in Geneva^[97] the sanitary epidemiological reconnaissance was suggested as well-tested means for enhancing the monitoring of infections and parasitic agents, for the practical implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005). The aim was to prevent and minimize the consequences of natural outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases as well as the threat of alleged use of biological weapons against BTWC States Parties.

Many countries require their active-duty military personnel to get vaccinated for certain diseases that may potentially be used as a bioweapon such as anthrax, smallpox, and various other vaccines depending on the Area of Operations of the individual military units and commands.^[98][99]

Public health and disease surveillance

It is important to note that most classical and modern biological weapons' pathogens can be obtained from a plant or an animal which is naturally infected.^[100]

In the largest biological weapons accident known—the anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk (now

Sverdlovsk Anthrax leak).^[101]

Thus, a robust surveillance system involving human clinicians and veterinarians may identify a bioweapons attack early in the course of an epidemic, permitting the prophylaxis of disease in the vast majority of people (and/or animals) exposed but not yet ill.[102]

For example, in the case of anthrax, it is likely that by 24–36 hours after an attack, some small percentage of individuals (those with the compromised immune system or who had received a large dose of the organism due to proximity to the release point) will become ill with classical symptoms and signs (including a virtually unique

chest X-ray finding, often recognized by public health officials if they receive timely reports).^[103] The incubation period for humans is estimated to be about 11.8 days to 12.1 days. This suggested period is the first model that is independently consistent with data from the largest known human outbreak. These projections refine previous estimates of the distribution of early-onset cases after a release and support a recommended 60-day course of prophylactic antibiotic treatment for individuals exposed to low doses of anthrax.^[104] By making these data available to local public health officials in real time, most models of anthrax epidemics indicate that more than 80% of an exposed population can receive antibiotic treatment before becoming symptomatic, and thus avoid the moderately high mortality of the disease.^[103]

Common epidemiological warnings

From most specific to least specific:[105]

1. Single cause of a certain disease caused by an uncommon agent, with lack of an epidemiological explanation.
2. Unusual, rare, genetically engineered strain of an agent.
3. High morbidity and mortality rates in regards to patients with the same or similar symptoms.
4. Unusual presentation of the disease.
5. Unusual geographic or seasonal distribution.
6. Stable endemic disease, but with an unexplained increase in relevance.
7. Rare transmission (aerosols, food, water).
8. No illness presented in people who were/are not exposed to "common ventilation systems (have separate closed ventilation systems) when illness is seen in persons in close proximity who have a common ventilation system."
9. Different and unexplained diseases coexisting in the same patient without any other explanation.
10. Rare illness that affects a large, disparate population (respiratory disease might suggest the pathogen or agent was inhaled).
11. Illness is unusual for a certain population or age-group in which it takes presence.
12. Unusual trends of death and/or illness in animal populations, previous to or accompanying illness in humans.
13. Many affected reaching out for treatment at the same time.
14. Similar genetic makeup of agents in affected individuals.
15. Simultaneous collections of similar illness in non-contiguous areas, domestic, or foreign.
16. An abundance of cases of unexplained diseases and deaths.

Bioweapon identification

The goal of

first Gulf War the United Nations activated a biological and chemical response team, Task Force Scorpio

, to respond to any potential use of weapons of mass destruction on civilians.

The traditional approach toward protecting agriculture, food, and water: focusing on the natural or unintentional introduction of a disease is being strengthened by focused efforts to address current and anticipated future biological weapons threats that may be deliberate, multiple, and repetitive.

The growing threat of biowarfare agents and bioterrorism has led to the development of specific field tools that perform on-the-spot analysis and identification of encountered suspect materials. One such technology, being developed by researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), employs a "sandwich immunoassay", in which fluorescent dye-labeled antibodies aimed at specific pathogens are attached to silver and gold nanowires.^[106]

In the Netherlands, the company TNO has designed Bioaerosol Single Particle Recognition eQuipment (BiosparQ). This system would be implemented into the national response plan for bioweapon attacks in the Netherlands.^[107]

Researchers at

Ben Gurion University in Israel are developing a different device called the BioPen, essentially a "Lab-in-a-Pen", which can detect known biological agents in under 20 minutes using an adaptation of the ELISA, a similar widely employed immunological technique, that in this case incorporates fiber optics.^[108]

List of programs, projects and sites by country

United States

Main article: United States biological weapons program

• Camp Detrick, Maryland
  (1940s).
  • U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories (1943–69)
    • Building 470
    • One-Million-Liter Test Sphere
    • Operation Sea-Spray
    • Operation Whitecoat (1954–73)
  • U.S. entomological warfare program
    • Operation Big Itch
    • Operation Big Buzz
    • Operation Drop Kick
    • Operation May Day
• Project Bacchus
• Project Clear Vision
• Project SHAD
• Project 112
• Horn Island Testing Station
• Fort Terry
• Granite Peak Installation
• Vigo Ordnance Plant

United Kingdom

Main article: United Kingdom and weapons of mass destruction § Biological weapons

• Porton Down
• Gruinard Island
• Nancekuke
• Operation Vegetarian (1942–1944)
• Open-air field tests:
  • Operation Harness off Antigua
    , 1948–1950.
  • Stornoway
    , 1952.
  • Operation Hesperus off Stornoway, 1953.
  • Operation Ozone off Nassau, 1954.
  • Operation Negation off Nassau, 1954–5.

Soviet Union and Russia

Main article: Soviet biological weapons program

• Biopreparat (18 labs and production centers)
  • Stepnogorsk Scientific and Technical Institute for Microbiology, Stepnogorsk, northern Kazakhstan
  • Leningrad
    , a weaponized plague center
  • Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology
    (VECTOR), a weaponized smallpox center
  • Institute of Applied Biochemistry, Omutninsk
  • Kirov bioweapons production facility, Kirov, Kirov Oblast
  • Zagorsk
  • Berdsk bioweapons production facility, Berdsk
  • Bioweapons research facility, Obolensk
  • Sverdlovsk bioweapons production facility (Military Compound 19), Sverdlovsk
    , a weaponized anthrax center
• Institute of Virus Preparations
• Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services
• Vozrozhdeniya
• Project Bonfire
• Project Factor

Japan

Main article:

Special Research Units

• Unit 731
• Zhongma Fortress
• Kaimingjie germ weapon attack
• Khabarovsk War Crime Trials
• Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department

Iraq

Main articles: Iraqi biological weapons program and Iraq and weapons of mass destruction

• Al Hakum
• Salman Pak facility
• Al Manal facility

South Africa

Main article: South Africa and weapons of mass destruction § Biological and chemical weapons

• Project Coast
• Delta G Scientific Company
• Roodeplaat Research Laboratories
• Protechnik

Rhodesia

Main article: Rhodesia and weapons of mass destruction

Canada

• Grosse Isle, Quebec
  , site (1939–45) of research into anthrax and other agents
• DRDC Suffield, Suffield, Alberta

List of associated people

Bioweaponeers:

Includes scientists and administrators

• Shyh-Ching Lo^[109][110]
• Kanatjan Alibekov, known as Ken Alibek^[111]
• Ira Baldwin^[112]
• Wouter Basson
• Kurt Blome^[113]
• Eugen von Haagen^[114]
• Anton Dilger^[115]
• Paul Fildes^[116]
• Arthur Galston (unwittingly)
• Kurt Gutzeit^[117]
• Riley D. Housewright
• Shiro Ishii
• Elvin A. Kabat
• George W. Merck
• Frank Olson
• Vladimir Pasechnik^[118]
• William C. Patrick III^[119]
• Sergei Popov^[120]
• Theodor Rosebury
• Rihab Rashid Taha^[121]
• Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda
• Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash
• Nassir al-Hindawi
• Erich Traub^[122]
• Auguste Trillat
• Baron Otto von Rosen^[123]
• Yujiro Wakamatsu
• Yazid Sufaat^{[citation needed]}

Writers and activists:

• Daniel Barenblatt
• Leonard A. Cole
• Stephen Endicott
• Arthur Galston
• Jeanne Guillemin^[124]
• Edward Hagerman
• Sheldon H. Harris^[125]
• Nicholas D. Kristof
• Joshua Lederberg^[126]
• Matthew Meselson^[127]
• Toby Ord
• Richard Preston
• Ed Regis
• Mark Wheelis
• David Willman
• Aaron Henderson^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture

Main article: Biological warfare in popular culture

See also

• Animal-borne bomb attacks
• Antibiotic resistance
• Asymmetric warfare
• Baker Island
• Bioaerosol
• Biological contamination
• Biological pest control
• Biosecurity
• Chemical weapon
• Counterinsurgency
• Discredited AIDS origins theories
• Enterotoxin
• Entomological warfare
• Ethnic bioweapon
• Herbicidal warfare
• Hittite plague
• Human experimentation in the United States
• John W. Powell
• Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System
• List of CBRN warfare forces
• McNeill's law
• Military animal
• Mycotoxin
• Plum Island Animal Disease Center
• Project 112
• Project AGILE
• Project SHAD
• Rhodesia and weapons of mass destruction
• Trichothecene
• Well poisoning
• Yellow rain

References