What is biological or bio-warfare? It is the use of biological pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and toxins derived from living organisms to kill or incapacitate one's enemies. So, from poisoned arrows (Scythians, and later the Viet Cong guerrillas) to poisoned wells (Sparta, Persia, Rome and others) to bombs with deadly bacteria (Japan, United States, Soviet Union and Iraq), the intentional use of biowarfare has been around for centuries.
During the siege of the city-state of Athens by the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War a devastating epidemic broke out which killed thousands of Athenians. The famous historian Thucydides, writing between 431 B.C. and 404 B.C. reported, "it was supposed that Sparta poisoned the wells."2 Even though Sparta won the Peloponnesian War, its reputation was destroyed.
Disease in War
Something Interesting:
Now that we veterinarians are getting crash courses to refresh us about Anthrax and other possible diseases that might be used by terrorists, I've learned that biological warfare has been with us a long time.
The ancients poisoned the wells of their enemies with the bodies of animals and humans who had died of epedemic diseases as a matter of course.
According to Dr Anthony Daniels article in the National Review, the beginning of the Black Death in Europe
...which ended up killing a third of the population...
started because the Tartars were besieging the Genoan trading outpost of Caffa on the Cimean coast in 1346 when plaque broke out among them.
Turning this catastrophic disease into a weapon, the Tartars lobbed the dead with catapults over the city walls...and the poor Genoans fled by ship back to Genoa...
taking the plaque with them from whence the Black Death spread throughout Europe.
The British used blankets to spread smallpox among the American Indians, knowing they were especially susceptible to this disease.
The same disease wiped out much of the South American Indians making the Spanish conquest of South America easy, although there is no evidence that the Spanish infected the native peoples on purpose as the British did.
In the Great War, the Germans tried to infect Romanian Sheep destined for export to Russia with anthrax!
And the French likewise tried to infect German horses with glanders.
In 1915, Dr Dilger, a German resident of Washington DC, secretly infected horses, mules, and cows being shipped to the Allies with anthrax that he produced in his own house.
He succeeded in infecting several hundred military personnel in the process.
Prior to World War ll, the Japanese developed and experimented with the largest scale biological warfare programs in history...
using (killing) thousands of conquered Chinese people in Manchuria as guinea pigs.
They also infected the wells and rivers of China with typhoid, which led to God knows how many deaths...
but at least 1700 of their own Japanese soilders.
The list goes on.
Shortly after WWI, towards the end of the influenza epidemic which claimed more lives than WWI did, the Post Office fashioned paddles with embedded spikes and paddled all of the quarantined mail, perforating it.
Then, the mail was shuttled to large fumigators which would kill any
mail-borne influenza
Gone fishing
From the fishing husband:
Saturday morning I got up early, dressed quietly, made my lunch,
grabbed the dog, slipped quietly into the garage to hook the boat up to
the truck, and proceeded to back out into a torrential down pour.
The wind was blowing 50 mph. I pulled back into the garage, turned on
the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad throughout the
day.
I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into
bed. There I cuddled up to my wife's back, now with a different
anticipation, and whispered, 'The weather out there is terrible.'
My loving wife of 20 yrs replied, 'Can you believe my stupid husband is
out fishing in that mess?'
I still don't know to this day if she was joking, but I have stopped
fishing.
On This Page:
Veterinary Time Line: 1900 - 1920:
A continuation of our time line with interesting events relating to veterinary medicine in the United States
Other pages about the history of veterinary medicine:
xth Century B.C.
One of the earliest reported uses of bioterrorism. Assyrians poison enemy wells with rye ergot, a fungus that causes convulsions if ingested.
1346
Plague breaks out in the Tartar army during its siege of Kaffa (at present-day Feodosia in Crimea). Attackers hurl the corpses of plague victims over the city walls, causing an epidemic that forces the city to surrender. Some infected Kaffa residents who left the city may have inadvertently started the Black Death pandemic.
1754
During the French and Indian wars, it's suspected British forces distribute smallpox-laden blankets to native American Indians who were loyal to the French.
1870
German scientist Robert Koch proves that microorganisms cause infectious diseases by injecting anthrax spores into mice. The mice contract the disease.
1882
In France, Louis Pasteur develops the first successful vaccine to prevent anthrax in animals.
1915
In what may be the 20th-century's first bioweapon, glanders is used by German undercover agents to infect the livestock of Allied countries with the highly contagious B. mallei agent. Glanders causes several fatal infections in humans around the turn of the 20th century before an international program of slaughtering infected animals all but eliminates the disease.
1937
Japan starts a biological warfare program at a facility known as Unit 731 in occupied Manchuria. After World War II, investigations show Japanese researchers used various microorganisms -- including aerosolized anthrax -- on prisoners and Chinese nationals.
1940
A plague epidemic in China and Manchuria follows reported overflights by Japanese planes dropping plague-infected fleas.
1942
Gruinard Island, off the coast of Scotland, is the subject of a biological warfare experiment when the British military drop bombs loaded with anthrax spores. The contamination of the island with viable anthrax spores was so great that in 1986 it had to be decontaminated with 280 tons of formaldehyde and 2,000 tons of seawater. The island is now declared fully decontaminated.
1942
The U.S. begins an offensive biological program at Camp Detrick, Md. Five thousand bombs filled with Bacillus anthracis spores are produced.
1953
The U.S. begins developing countermeasures such as vaccines, to protect troops from biological warfare.
1969
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signs an executive order to stop all offensive biological and toxin weapon research and production.
1971-72
All stockpiles of biological agents and munitions from the U.S. program are destroyed.
1972
The United States and other countries sign what's known as the Biological Weapons Convention. It prohibits the stockpiling of biological agents for offensive military purposes. The former Soviet Union and Iraq are signatories to this accord.
1979
A biological weapons plant in Sverdlovsk, Russia accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores. There are 66 confirmed deaths, but the actual number of those killed is unknown. Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico determines the spores contained at least four different strains of anthrax.
1984
The Rajneeshee cult, followers of Baghwan Sri Rajneesh, contaminates salad bars in an Oregon town with salmonella. More than 750 people become seriously ill. The group was trying to influence a local election by incapacitating voters.
1991
U.S. troops are vaccinated for anthrax before the Persian Gulf War.
1991
After the Gulf War, the United Nations conducts its first inspection of Iraq's biological weapons capabilities. Representatives of the Iraqi government confirm to a U.N. team that they had conducted research into the use of anthrax, botulism and other toxins.
1995
The Aum Shinrikyo cult releases the nerve agent sarin in the Tokyo subways, killing 12 and sickening thousands. The group attempted on at least 10 occasions to release biological warfare agents in aerosol form.
2001
Letters containing anthrax spores are mailed to NBC News and the offices of Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) at the U.S. Capitol. At American Media in Florida, one person dies after contracting anthrax. Anthrax spores are found at N.Y. Gov. George Pataki's offices in New York City.
