Editing Biological warfare (section)

==History==
{{main|History of biological warfare}}
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===Antiquity and Middle Ages===

Rudimentary forms of biological warfare have been practiced since antiquity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mayor |first=Adrienne |title=Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World | name-list-style = vanc |publisher=Overlook Duckworth |location=Woodstock, N.Y. |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-58567-348-3}}</ref> The earliest documented incident of the intention to use biological weapons is recorded in [[Hittite language|Hittite]] texts of 1500–1200 BC, in which victims of an [[Hittite plague|unknown plague]] (possibly [[tularemia]]) were driven into enemy lands, causing an epidemic.<ref name="pmid17499936">{{cite journal| author=Trevisanato SI| title=The 'Hittite plague', an epidemic of tularemia and the first record of biological warfare | journal=Med Hypotheses | year= 2007 | volume= 69 | issue= 6 | pages= 1371–4 | pmid=17499936 | doi=10.1016/j.mehy.2007.03.012 | pmc= | url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17499936  }}</ref>  The Assyrians poisoned enemy wells with the fungus [[ergot]], though with unknown results. [[Scythians|Scythian]] archers dipped their arrows and Roman soldiers their swords into excrements and cadavers – victims were commonly infected by [[tetanus]] as result.<ref name="croodybook">{{cite book |last1=Croddy |first1=Eric |last2=Perez-Armendariz |first2=Clarissa |last3=Hart |first3=John |title=Chemical and biological warfare : a comprehensive survey for the concerned citizen |date=2002 |publisher=Copernicus Books |isbn=0387950761 |page=[https://archive.org/details/chemicalbiologic00crod/page/214,219 214,219] |url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalbiologic00crod/page/214,219 }}</ref> In 1346, the bodies of [[Mongol]] warriors of the [[Golden Horde]] who had died of [[Plague (disease)|plague]] were thrown over the walls of the [[Siege of Caffa|besieged Crimean city of Kaffa]]. Specialists disagree about whether this operation was responsible for the spread of the [[Black Death]] into Europe, Near East and North Africa, resulting in the deaths of approximately 25 million Europeans.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Wheelis M | title = Biological warfare at the 1346 siege of Caffa | journal = Emerging Infectious Diseases | volume = 8 | issue = 9 | pages = 971–5 | date = September 2002 | pmid = 12194776 | pmc = 2732530 | doi = 10.3201/eid0809.010536 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Barras V, Greub G | title = History of biological warfare and bioterrorism | journal = Clinical Microbiology and Infection | volume = 20 | issue = 6 | pages = 497–502 | date = June 2014 | pmid = 24894605 | doi = 10.1111/1469-0691.12706 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>Andrew G. Robertson, and Laura J. Robertson. "From asps to allegations: biological warfare in history," ''Military medicine'' (1995) 160#8 pp: 369-373.</ref><ref>Rakibul Hasan, "Biological Weapons: covert threats to Global Health Security." ''Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies'' (2014) 2#9 p 38. [http://www.ajms.co.in/sites/ajms/index.php/ajms/article/viewFile/559/488 online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217124035/http://www.ajms.co.in/sites/ajms/index.php/ajms/article/viewFile/559/488 |date=17 December 2014 }}</ref>

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.<ref name="Thornton2002">{{cite book|author=John K. Thornton|title=Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 1500-1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7_qNAgAAQBAJ|date=November 2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-36584-4}}</ref><ref name="OlayemiAkinwumi 1995">{{cite journal | last=Akinwumi | first=Olayemi | title=Biologically-based Warfare in the Pre-colonial Borgu Society of Nigeria and Republic of Benin | journal=Transafrican Journal of History | volume=24 | year=1995 | pages=123–130}}</ref> In Borgu, there were specific mixtures to kill, [[hypnosis|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.<ref name="OlayemiAkinwumi 1995"/>

===18th to 19th century===

During the [[French and Indian War]], in June 1763 a group of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] laid [[Siege of Fort Pitt|siege]] to British-held [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]].<ref>{{cite book |title=American Indian Chronology: Chronologies of the American Mosaic |date=June 2, 2011 |first=Phillip M. |last=White |page=44 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]]}}</ref> Following instructions of his superior, Colonel [[Henry Bouquet]], the commander of Fort Pitt, [[Switzerland|Swiss-born]] Captain Simeon Ecuyer, ordered his men to take smallpox-infested blankets from the infirmary and give it to a Lenape delegation during the siege.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (Pivotal Moments in American History)|last=Calloway|first=Collin G. | name-list-style = vanc |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0195331271|page=73}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Rationalizing Epidemics|last=Jones|first=David S. | name-list-style = vanc |publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0674013056|page=97}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=A Country Between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724-1774|last=McConnel|first=Michael N. | name-list-style = vanc |publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=1997|page=195}}</ref> 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 [[Lenape|Delaware people]] as outbreaks happened on their own every dozen or so years<ref>{{cite book|last1=King |first1=J. C. H. |title=Blood and Land: The Story of Native North America |date=2016 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=9781846148088 |page=73}}</ref> and the delegates were met again later and seemingly had not contracted smallpox.<ref name=ranlet>{{cite journal|last1=Ranlet |first1=P |title=The British, the Indians, and smallpox: what actually happened at Fort Pitt in 1763? |journal=Pennsylvania History |date=2000 |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=427–441 |pmid=17216901}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Barras V, Greub G | title = History of biological warfare and bioterrorism | journal = Clinical Microbiology and Infection | volume = 20 | issue = 6 | pages = 497–502 | date = June 2014 | pmid = 24894605 | doi = 10.1111/1469-0691.12706 | quote = However, in the light of contemporary knowledge, it remains doubtful whether his hopes were fulfilled, given the fact that the transmission of smallpox through this kind of vector is much less efficient than respiratory transmission, and that Native Americans had been in contact with smallpox >200 years before Ecuyer's trickery, notably during Pizarro's conquest of South America in the 16th century. As a whole, the analysis of the various 'pre-microbiological" attempts at biological warfare illustrate the difficulty of differentiating attempted biological attack from naturally occurring epidemics. | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-16-087238-9|page=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nm_AVg4hmJQC&pg=PA3|date=2007|quote=In retrospect, it is difficult to evaluate the tactical success of Captain Ecuyer's biological attack because smallpox may have been transmitted after other contacts with colonists, as had previously happened in New England and the South. Although scabs from smallpox patients are thought to be of low infectivity as a result of binding of the virus in fibrin metric, and transmission by fomites has been considered inefficient compared with respiratory droplet transmission.}}</ref> 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, 5th Viscount Howe|William Howe]], had deliberately sent civilians out of the city in the hopes of spreading the [[1775–1782 North American smallpox epidemic|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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mary V. Thompson |title=Smallpox |url=https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/smallpox/ |publisher=Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Gen. George Washington - A Threat of Bioterrorism, 1775 |url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=4 |website=Eyewitness -- American Originals from the National Archives |publisher=US National Archives}}</ref> Some historians have claimed that a detachment of the [[Royal Marines|Corps of Royal Marines]] stationed in [[New South Wales]], Australia, deliberately used [[smallpox]] there in 1789.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Christopher |first=Warren |s2cid=143644513 | name-list-style = vanc |title = Smallpox at Sydney Cove – Who, When, Why | journal = Journal of Australian Studies | year = 2013 | doi =10.1080/14443058.2013.849750 | volume=38 | pages=68–86}} See also [[History of biological warfare#New South Wales]], [[First Fleet#First Fleet smallpox]], and [[Australian history wars#Controversy over smallpox in Australia|History wars#Controversy over smallpox in Australia]].</ref> Dr Seth Carus states: "Ultimately, we have a strong circumstantial case supporting the theory that someone deliberately introduced smallpox in the Aboriginal population."<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Carus WS | title = The history of biological weapons use: what we know and what we don't. | journal = Health Security | date = August 2015 | volume = 13 | issue = 4 | pages = 219–55 | doi = 10.1089/hs.2014.0092 | pmid = 26221997 }}</ref>

===World War I===
By 1900 the [[germ theory]] and advances in [[bacteriology]] brought a new level of sophistication to the techniques for possible use of [[bio-agent]]s in war. Biological sabotage in the form of [[anthrax]] and [[glanders]] was undertaken on behalf of the [[German Empire|Imperial German]] government during [[World War I]] (1914–1918), with indifferent results.<ref>Koenig, Robert (2006), ''The Fourth Horseman: One Man's Secret Campaign to Fight the Great War in America'', PublicAffairs.</ref> The [[Geneva Protocol]] of 1925 prohibited the first use of chemical and biological weapons against enemy nationals in international armed conflicts.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal|last1=Baxter|first1=R. R.|last2=Buergenthal|first2=Thomas|name-list-style=vanc|title=Legal Aspects of the Geneva Protocol of 1925|journal= The American Journal of International Law|date=28 March 2017|volume=64|issue=5|pages=853–879|doi=10.2307/2198921|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/legal-aspects-of-the-geneva-protocol-of-1925/26453DA22053FCBB08BB4A520FFE9964|jstor=2198921|s2cid=147499122|access-date=27 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027233302/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/legal-aspects-of-the-geneva-protocol-of-1925/26453DA22053FCBB08BB4A520FFE9964|archive-date=27 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

===World War II===
With the onset of [[World War II]], the [[Ministry of Supply]] in the [[United Kingdom]] established a biological warfare program at [[Porton Down]], headed by the microbiologist [[Paul Fildes]]. The research was championed by [[Winston Churchill]] and soon [[tularemia]], [[Anthrax disease|anthrax]], [[brucellosis]], and [[botulism]] toxins had been effectively weaponized. In particular, [[Gruinard Island]] in Scotland, was contaminated with anthrax during a series of extensive tests for the next 56 years. Although the UK never offensively used the biological weapons it developed, its program was the first to successfully weaponize a variety of deadly pathogens and bring them into industrial production.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoDwO-dl-i0C|title=Biological Agents, Volume 2 | vauthors = Prasad SK  |year=2009 |publisher=Discovery Publishing House |page=36 |isbn=9788183563819}}</ref> Other nations, notably France and Japan, had begun their own biological weapons programs.<ref name="garrett">{{cite book | last = Garrett | first = Laurie | name-list-style = vanc | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=teMYnJoVolkC&pg=PA340 | title = Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 2003 | pages = 340–341 | isbn = 978-0198526834}}</ref>

When the United States entered the war, Allied resources were pooled at the request of the British. The US then established a large research program and industrial complex at [[Fort Detrick, Maryland]], in 1942 under the direction of [[George W. Merck]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Covert | first = Norman M | name-list-style = vanc | date = 2000 | url = http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/index.cfm?chapter=contents | title = A History of Fort Detrick, Maryland | edition = 4th | access-date = 20 December 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120121062629/http://www.detrick.army.mil/cutting_edge/index.cfm?chapter=contents | archive-date = 21 January 2012 | url-status = dead}}</ref> The biological and chemical weapons developed during that period were tested at the [[Dugway Proving Grounds]] in [[Utah]]. Soon there were facilities for the mass production of anthrax spores, [[brucellosis]], and [[botulism]] toxins, although the war was over before these weapons could be of much operational use.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Guillemin J | title = Scientists and the history of biological weapons. A brief historical overview of the development of biological weapons in the twentieth century | journal = EMBO Reports | volume = 7 Spec No | issue = Spec No | pages = S45-9 | date = July 2006 | pmid = 16819450 | pmc = 1490304 | doi = 10.1038/sj.embor.7400689 }}</ref>

[[File:Shiro-ishii.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|[[Shirō Ishii]], commander of [[Unit 731]], which performed human [[vivisection]]s and other biological experimentation]]
The most notorious program of the period was run by the secret [[Imperial Japanese Army]] [[Unit 731]] during the [[Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)|war]], based at [[Pingfan]] in [[Manchuria]] and commanded by Lieutenant General [[Shirō Ishii]]. This biological warfare research unit conducted often fatal [[human experimentation|human experiments]] on prisoners, and produced biological weapons for combat use.<ref name="Williams1989">{{Cite book |title=Unit 731: Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II |publisher=Free Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-02-935301-1|last1=Williams |first1=Peter |last2=Wallace |first2=David| name-list-style = vanc }}</ref> Although the Japanese effort lacked the technological sophistication of the American or British programs, it far outstripped them in its widespread application and indiscriminate brutality. Biological weapons were used against Chinese soldiers and civilians in several military campaigns.<ref>{{cite report | first = Hal | last = Gold | name-list-style = vanc | title = Unit 731 testimony | date = 1996 | pages = 64–66 }}</ref> In 1940, the Japanese Army Air Force bombed [[Ningbo]] with ceramic bombs full of fleas carrying the bubonic plague.<ref name=Barenblatt2004>{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Barenblatt | name-list-style = vanc |title=A Plague upon Humanity |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2004|pages=220–221 }}</ref> Many of these operations were ineffective due to inefficient delivery systems,<ref name=Williams1989 /> although up to 200,000 people may have died.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kristof |first=NICHOLAS D. |date=March 17, 1995 |title=Unmasking Horror -- A special report.; Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/17/world/unmasking-horror-a-special-report-japan-confronting-gruesome-war-atrocity.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714031133/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/17/world/unmasking-horror-a-special-report-japan-confronting-gruesome-war-atrocity.html |archive-date=July 14, 2019 |work=[[New York Times]]}}</ref> During the [[Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign]] in 1942, around 1,700 Japanese troops died out of a total 10,000 Japanese soldiers who fell ill with disease when their own biological weapons attack rebounded on their own forces.<ref>{{cite book | veditors = Chevrier MI, Chomiczewski K, Garrigue H, Granasztói G, Dando MR, Pearson GS | chapter = Johnston Atoll | title = The Implementation of Legally Binding Measures to Strengthen the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, held in Budapest, Hungary, 2001 | publisher = Springer Science & Business Media | date = July 2004 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzlNgS70OHAC&pg=PA171 | page = 171 | isbn = 978-1-4020-2096-4 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first1 = Eric | last1 = Croddy | first2 = James J | last2 = Wirtz  | name-list-style = vanc |title=Weapons of Mass Destruction|year=2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-490-5|page=171}}</ref>

During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against US civilians in [[San Diego]], [[California]], during [[Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night]]. The plan was set to launch on 22 September 1945, but it was not executed because of [[Japan's surrender]] on 15 August 1945.<ref>{{cite book | first = Naomi | last = Baumslag | name-list-style = vanc | title = Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus | url = https://archive.org/details/murderousmedicin0000baum | url-access = registration | date = 2005 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/murderousmedicin0000baum/page/207 207] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135638924/where-to-find-the-worlds-most-wicked-bugs| first=Amy| last=Stewart| name-list-style=vanc| title=Where To Find The World's Most 'Wicked Bugs': Fleas| publisher=National Public Radio| date=25 April 2011| access-date=5 April 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426075831/https://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135638924/where-to-find-the-worlds-most-wicked-bugs| archive-date=26 April 2018| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2001/06/05/commentary/world-commentary/the-trial-of-unit-731/| author=Russell Working| title=The trial of Unit 731| work=The Japan Times| date=5 June 2001| access-date=26 December 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221090020/http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2001/06/05/commentary/world-commentary/the-trial-of-unit-731/| archive-date=21 December 2014| url-status=live}}</ref>

===1948 Arab–Israeli War===
According to historians [[Benny Morris]] and [[Benjamin Kedar]], Israel conducted a biological warfare operation codenamed [[Operation Cast Thy Bread]] during the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]]. The Haganah initially used typhoid bacteria to contaminate water wells in newly cleared Arab villages to prevent the population including militiamen from returning. Later, the biological warfare campaign expanded to include Jewish settlements that were in imminent danger of being captured by Arab troops and inhabited Arab towns not slated for capture. There was also plans to expand the biological warfare campaign into other Arab states including Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, but they were not carried out.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |last2=Kedar |first2=Benjamin Z. |date=2022-01-01 |title='Cast thy bread': Israeli biological warfare during the 1948 War |url=http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138258079&partnerID=8YFLogxK |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=59 |issue=5 |pages=752–776 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2022.2122448 |issn=0026-3206 |s2cid=252389726}}</ref>

Some British soldiers were also poisoned: causing the event to gain international attention.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-10-14/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/documents-confirm-israelis-poisoned-arab-wells-in-1948/00000183-d2b2-d8cc-afc7-fefed64d0000 | title='Place the Material in the Wells': Docs Point to Israeli Army's 1948 Biological Warfare | website=Haaretz | date=14 October 2022 }}</ref>

===Cold War===
In Britain, the 1950s saw the weaponization of [[Bubonic plague|plague]], [[brucellosis]], [[tularemia]] and later [[Eastern equine encephalitis virus|equine encephalomyelitis]] and [[vaccinia]] viruses, but the programme was unilaterally cancelled in 1956. The [[United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories]] weaponized [[anthrax]], [[tularemia]], [[brucellosis]], [[Q-fever]] and others.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clark|first1=William R. | name-list-style = vanc |title=Bracing for Armageddon?: The Science and Politics of Bioterrorism in America|date=15 May 2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=USA}}</ref>

In 1969, US President [[Richard Nixon]] decided to [[Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs|unilaterally terminate]] the [[United States biological weapons program|offensive biological weapons program of the US]], allowing only scientific research for defensive measures.<ref>[[Richard Nixon]] (1969), [[Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs]]. [[wikisource:Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs|Wikisource link]].</ref> 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.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=History of the Biological Weapons Convention|url=https://www.un.org/disarmament/biological-weapons/about/history/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216203033/https://www.un.org/disarmament/biological-weapons/about/history|archive-date=2021-02-16|access-date=2021-03-02|website=[[United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs]]|language=en-US}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":4" />

Despite being a party and depositary to the BWC, the [[Soviet Union]] continued and expanded its massive [[Soviet biological weapons program|offensive biological weapons program]], under the leadership of the allegedly civilian institution [[Biopreparat]].<ref name="Alibek" /> The Soviet Union attracted international suspicion after the 1979 [[Sverdlovsk anthrax leak]] killed approximately 65 to 100 people.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Meselson|first1=M.|last2=Guillemin|first2=J.|last3=Hugh-Jones|first3=M.|last4=Langmuir|first4=A.|last5=Popova|first5=I.|last6=Shelokov|first6=A.|last7=Yampolskaya|first7=O.|date=1994-11-18|title=The Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak of 1979|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.7973702|journal=Science|language=en|volume=266|issue=5188|pages=1202–1208|doi=10.1126/science.7973702|issn=0036-8075|pmid=7973702|bibcode=1994Sci...266.1202M}}</ref>