Biological Warfare

Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological agents such as bacteria, viruses, or toxins to intentionally cause disease or death in humans, animals, or plants. The aim of biological warfare is to incapacitate or kill an enemy by spreading contagious diseases, contaminating food or water supplies, or infecting livestock or crops.

Biological weapons can be spread through the air, water, or direct contact with infected individuals or materials. They can be highly effective and can cause widespread damage to both military forces and civilian populations.

Aeneas the Tactician, a Greek military writer who lived in the 4th century BC, recommended in his treatise On the Defense of Fortifications that besieging armies should try to make the water supply of the besieged city undrinkable. This was seen as a way to weaken the defenders and force them to surrender more quickly.

Aeneas suggested several methods for making water undrinkable, including adding salt or vinegar to the water source, or even using dead animals to contaminate the water supply. These tactics were intended to make the defenders more vulnerable to disease and other health problems, as well as to undermine their morale and ability to resist.

The Romans were known to catapult beehives and hornets’ nests into enemy encampments.

Hannibal suggested a novel approach to warfare, advising the Bithynians to catapult jars filled with poisonous snakes towards enemy ships in 184 BC. 

The 12th century Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa dumped human corpses down wells on a campaign in Italy in 1155. 

When the tartars besieged the Crimean city of Caffa (now Feodosiya, Ukraine) in 1346, they catapulted dead bodies of soldiers infected by the bubonic plague over city walls. an outbreak caused its collapse.

Combatants became increasingly inventive. in 1495, Spanish forces supplied their French adversaries with wine contaminated with the blood of leprosy patients while warring in Southern Italy. in 1650, the Polish general Kasimierz Siemienowicz suggested firing ‘the slobber from rabid dogs’ in glass vials at their enemies.

Russian troops catapulted plague infected corpses into the Baltic city of Reval during its war with Sweden in 1710.

During the siege of Mantua in 1797, Napoleon ordered the fields around the city to be flooded, hoping to spread swamp fever, now known as mosquito transmitted malaria.

Gruinard Island is a small, uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland that was used by the British military during World War II as a testing site for biological weapons, specifically anthrax.

After the tests were completed, the island was contaminated with anthrax spores, and in 1942 it was declared a prohibited area. The island remained quarantined for several decades, and it was not until 1986 that a major decontamination effort was launched by the British government. The decontamination involved spreading a formaldehyde solution over the island, which killed off the anthrax spores.

On April 24, 1990, after 48 years of quarantine and extensive testing, the British government declared Gruinard Island free of anthrax. Since then, the island has been used for scientific research and has been the subject of ongoing monitoring to ensure that it remains free of contamination.

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is an international treaty that prohibits the development, production, and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons. It was opened for signature in 1972 and entered into force on March 26, 1975.

As of 2021, the BWC has been signed by 185 countries, including the United States, Russia, China, and other major powers. The convention prohibits the use of biological weapons and requires states to destroy any existing weapons and facilities for their production. It also requires states to take measures to prevent the proliferation of biological weapons and to cooperate in the peaceful uses of biological science and technology. The BWC is monitored by the United Nations and its member states, and there have been efforts to strengthen its implementation and enforcement over the years.

The Biological Weapons Convention

Source Daily Mail