Examples for potential bioweapon agents and their use in history

• Anthrax spores

  Anthrax: Perhaps the best known biological weapon is anthrax, the Bacillus anthracis bacterium. Research to weaponize anthrax was performed by the UK during World War II. The UK produced million of cattle cakes spiked with anthrax to retaliate in case the Nazis would have used biological weapons. After field trials with anthrax bombs on Gruinard Island in Scotland, this isle was lethally contaminated and off limits for any human being for nearly 50 years.
  
  
• Tularemia is another first choice biological weapon agent, as it is – like anthrax – relatively stable in the environment and can be delivered through airborne particles (aerosols).
  
  
• Plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, was one of the first infectious diseases that have been used for military purposes. In 1346, after three years of blockading the city of Kaffa, the Tartars catapulted their plague-victims into the city, causing a deadly epidemic within weeks.
  

  Yersinia pestis

  
  
• Smallpox has been globally eradicated in 1977. However, smallpox virus (called Variola) is still kept in research institutions. Biowarfare with smallpox goes back to the 18th century, when the British sold horse blankets contaminated with smallpox to Native Americans in the USA. The former USSR is alleged to have produced weaponized smallpox virus in a facility called Vector near Novosibirsk. As smallpox vaccinations were stopped some 20 years ago, especially the youth is extremely vulnerable to smallpox today.
  
  
• Ebola, one of the most deadly viruses, is a potential bioweapon. The Japanes Aum sect, known for the poisonous gas attack on the Tokyo Metro, allegedly attempted to get hold of Ebola samples by sending cult members to Zaire during an Ebola outbreak.
  
  
• Foot and mouth disease is an example for anti-animal weapons. Biological weapons are not restricted to human pathogens. Any living agent that is used for hostile purposes – regardless of its origin and target – is considered a biological weapon under the BTWC.
  
  
• Also anti-crop bioweapons have been developed. For example, the USA had an arsenal of 900kg of a rice pathogen during the Vietnam war, before the US biowarfare program was dismantled in the late 1960s. (See Dr. Mark Wheelis' paper at the Edmonds Institute.)
  
  
• Toxins are also covered by the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Toxins are highly lethal substances that are usually produced by living organisms, such as fungi, algae or bacteria. One of most deadly toxins known to humankind is botulinum toxin, which has been weaponized in the past in offensive biological weapons programs.

 

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