Sydney Resler

Hist 4210
Dr. Knox
15 Dec 2016
Final Independent Research Project

PAPER:
My project is a timeline of a brief history of biological warfare. I think this topic is becoming increasingly
important with our growing understanding of pathogens and our growing abilities to weaponize them.
This timeline is a visual representation of events where biowarfare, bioterrorism, and/or biocrime was
used up through 1999. The digital tool used is TimelineJS. I felt that using a timeline to represent my
research question was the best based on what my question is and the information I am attempting to
portray. I am looking at specific types of events over a long period of time, so a timeline is a very fitting
representation.
Firstly, I should introduce my research question and project topic in more detail. To start, what is my
definition of brief? In order to complete an effective timeline that did not become too large or turn into
a hassle for readers, I had to implement some boundaries. The years my timeline covers is the period
from the beginning of timeor, however far in the past I could find substantial evidence for an event
to the year 2000. I chose 2000 because it is a nicely rounded, even year that begins a new millennium.
[Also, this is a history project so it would be best not to make it too modern, right?]
In order to help keep my timeline an appropriate length and also keep it appropriately historically
accurate, I had to form guidelines for what events I would put in the timeline. To do so I first had to
differentiate between biological and chemical warfare. Sometimes these terms are used together, to
overarch or umbrella an array of events where either or both kinds of weapons can be used. Biological
warfare is driven by biological weapons, which are weapons consisting of biological matter capable of
causing disease, illness, or death (i.e. pathogens). These include prions, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and
infectious nucleic acids. Some of the common pathogens used as bioweapons are listed in the following
table (Jansen et al, 2014):
Disease
Anthrax

Brucellosis

Glanders

Biological agent

Organism
persistence
Bacteria; spores of Very stable;
Bacillus anthracis spores may be
viable for >40
years in soil
Bacteria; genus
6 weeks. In dust
Brucella (B.
to 10 weeks. In
melitensis, B. suis, soil or water
B. abortus, B.
canis)

Infective dose

Mortality

8,000-5,000
spores

High

10100 organisms

5% if untreated

Bacteria;
Burkholderia
mallei

Unknown

Very high if
untreated

Very stable

Melioidosis

Plague

Bacteria;
Burkholderia
pseudomallei
Bacteria; Yersinia
pestis

Q-fever

Bacteria; Coxiella
burnetii

Salmonellosis

Bacteria; genus
Salmonella (S.
typhi, S.
paratyphi)
Bacteria; genus
Shigella (S.
dysenteriae, S.
flexneri, S. sonnei,
and S. boydii)

Shigellosis

Very stable

Unknown

Very high if
untreated

Up to 1 year in
soil, but viable
only for 1 hour
after aerosol
release
Resistant to heat
and drying,
persists for weeks
to months
Resistant to heat
up to 57-60
degrees C

100-20,000
organisms

Very high if
untreated, 10%
with antibiotics

1-10 organisms

1% untreated; 3060% chronic form

Unknown

<1%

Mean survival of
2-3 days, up to 17
days in favorable
circumstances,
several hours on
infected hands
Weeks in water,
soil, or carcasses;
and years in
frozen meat
Highly stable for
up to 1 year in
dust and cloth

1-100 organisms

<1%

10-50 organisms

4-50% mortality
without treatment;
1% with treatment

10-100 organisms

Ordinary type:
30% if
unvaccinated, 3%
if vaccinated
<1%

Tularaemia
(rabbit fever)

Francisella
tularensis ssp.
tularensis

Smallpox

Variola virus;
Variola major

Venezuelan
equine
encephalitis

Alphavirus;
Venezuelan
equine
encephalitis virus
complex
Botulinum toxin;
produced by
bacteria
Colstridium
botulinum

Unstable in
environment

10-100 organisms

Weeks in nonmoving food or

water

LD50 is 0.001
ug/kg for type A
(parenteral), or
0.003 ug/kg
(aerosol)

Toxin; derived
from beans of
castor plant
Ricinus communis
Toxin; produced
by bacteria
Staphylococcus
aureus

Stable until heated

above 80 degrees
C

LD50 1 mg

Without
supportive
treatment: high
mortality resulting
from respiratory
failure
High

Resistant to
freezing,
inactivated at 100
deg C

0.03 ug/person

<1%

Botulism

Ricin

Staphylococcal
enterotoxin B

(Jansen et al, 2014)

These pathogens are chosen for their potential effect on human life and populations, whether the direct
target is human, animal, or agriculture. They all have high morbidity and mortality rates, are highly
infectious and need a small amount of particles to cause illness, are stable for long periods of storage and
delivery, can be delivered over a wide area in a short period of time, are easily mass produced, and are
suitable for simple genetic engineering to improve or increase weaponization. (Jansen et al, 2014) On the
other hand, chemical warfare is driven by chemical weapons, which are agents that utilize chemicals do
cause harm, illness, or death (Szinicz, 2005).
Bioterrorism is the purposeful release or use of viruses, bacteria, or other pathogenic agents to cause
illness or death in people, animals, or plants. Bioterroristic attacks are aimed at inciting fear, creating
casualties, and causing societal or economic disruption. The most common drives behind bioterror are
ideological, religious, or political beliefs. Biocrime is the use of a biological agent (or bioweapon) to
attack a single person or group of individuals for a specific, often more personal reason. (Jansen et al,
2014)
I decided to only use proven, substantial uses of biological weapons that were cited in multiple sources
and had a low likelihood of being false propaganda spread by enemies. For example, there is question as
to whether the Mongols actually catapulted plague-infected bodies at the Genoese during the siege of
Kaffa in the 1340s, or if Barbarossa really poisoned wells with dead bodies at the battle of Tortona in
1155 (Frischknecht, 2003; Szinicz 2005; Barras & Greub, 2014). Some of these older events are
especially difficult to evaluate since the only records were written accounts from sources that could be
unreliable. There were also many extreme allegations of biowarfare during the Cold War era, the Korean
and Vietnam wars, the Afghanistan invasion, the Kampuchea dictatorship, and the like. These instances
had no witnesses, no evidence, and no samples of bioweapons were found at alleged locations of attack
and thus were found to be stories fabricated as ferocious propaganda arising from both sides (Barras,
2015). Along with actual instances of bioweapon use, I included some important international events that
greatly impacted how we understood the epidemiology and how we could use biological weapons.
Personal experience lends numerous examples of these theories: from the World Health Organization or
United Nations utilizing HIV/AIDS as a weapon to gain control over the world to Bill Gates developing
the Zika virus to control population sizes (Guyatt; Stone, 2016). In reality, these two viruses were not
genetically engineered and not released on the world population with the intentions of hopefully taking
over the world Popular culture has turned biowarfare theories into successful entertainment, such as
several of Richard Prestons fiction and non-fiction books (The Cobra Event, The Demon in Freezer, The
Hot Zone), Stephen Kings The Stand, Michael Crichtons The Andromeda Strain, George A. Romeros
movies The Crazies, and more.
Whether the above stories are true or plausible or completely improbable, the fact remains that biological
warfare is a serious concern in modern society. Instances of bioterrorism and biowarfare have increased
over the past century and adds another dimension to the horror that is brought on by pathogenic evolution.
Multiple diseases have become resistant to antibiotics in recent years, including tuberculosis and
gonorrhea, and it is easier now than ever to modify the genetics of any organism. Our advancements in
technology mixed with natural evolution of pathogens and the difficulty of vaccine production and
adherence makes the threat of biological warfare more plausible and horrifying every day.

Sources:
Barras, V. and G. Greub. History of biological warfare and bioterrorism. Clinical Microbiology and
Infection 20.6 (June 2014): 497-502. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1198743X14641744
Biological Warfare Banned. (1972). The British Medical Journal, 2(5807) (1972): 180-181. Retrieved
from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25418456
Frischknecht, Friedrich. The History of Biological Warfare. EMBO Reports 4.Suppl 1 (2003): S47
S52. PMC. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1326439/
Guyatt, David. Did the Pentagon Manufacture AIDS as a Biological Weapon? DeepBlackLies.
Retrieved from http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/pentagon_aids.htm
Jansen H.J., Breeveld, F.J., Stijnis, C., and M.P. Grobusch. Biological warfare, bioterrorism, and
biocrime. Clinical Microbiology and Infection 20.6 (June 2014): 488-496.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1198743X14641732
Keys, David. How the British Government subjected thousands of people to chemical and biological
warfare trials during the Cold War. The Independent (8 July 2015). Retrieved from
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/how-the-british-government-subjected-thousands-ofpeople-to-chemical-and-biological-warfare-trials-10376411.html
Riedel, Stefan. Biological warfare and bioterrorism: a historical review. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Center)
17(4) (Oct 2004): 400-406. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200679/
Stone, Maddie. Conspiracy Theorists Think Zika Is a Biological Weapon. Gizmodo. (16 Feb 2016).
Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/these-zika-truther-theories-are-fantastically-insane-1756893104
Szinicz, L. History of chemical and biological warfare agents. Toxicology 214.3 (Oct. 2005): 167-181.
Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300483X05002829