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Handbook on Biological Warfare Preparedness

Vidhu Pachauri

Anshula Sharma, Gaganjot Gupta, Tawseef Ahmad, Kewal Krishan and Baljinder Kaur

Contributors

Tawseef Ahmad

Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala, India

A.S.B. Bhaskar

Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Defence Research and Development Establishment, Gwalior, India

N. Bhavanashri

Shankaranarayana Life Sciences, Bengaluru, India

Mannan Boopathi

Defence Research and Development Establishment, DRDO, Gwalior, India

Paban Kumar Dash

Division of Virology, Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Defence Research and Development Organization, Ministry of Defence, Gwalior, India

S.J.S. Flora

National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research-Raebareli, Lucknow, India

Gaganjot Gupta

Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala, India

Baljinder Kaur

Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala, India

Kewal Krishan

Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, India

Anoop Kumar

National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research-Raebareli, Lucknow, India

Chacha D. Mangu

National Institute for Medical Research, Mbeya Medical Research Center, Mbeya, Tanzania

Bhairab Mondal

Shankaranarayana Life Sciences, Bengaluru, India

S.P. Mounika

Shankaranarayana Life Sciences, Bengaluru, India

V. Nagaraajan

VN Neurocare Center, Madurai, India

Vidhu Pachauri

National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research-Raebareli, Lucknow, India

decontamination of infrastructure contaminated with biological warfare agents, biological and toxin warfare convention: current status and future prospects, microfluidics application for the detection of biological warfare agents and toxins as biological warfare agents, etc. Several chapters provide the latest information on problems related to detection, prevention, protection, de-contamination, and medical management. A significant part of the book is devoted to providing details of bacterial and viral biological warfare agents, their categories, routes of infection, and detection techniques. Finally, the later part of the book emphasizes some new developments in bio-threat detection technologies, prevention, therapeutic measures, genome information of BW agents, and finally a brief chapter on planning for protection of civilians against bio-terrorism.

In the past few years, scientists from many parts of the world have realized the need for a simple handbook that can provide detailed coverage of biological warfare agents and our preparedness. This book can be used by students of graduate and postgraduate level, scientists, and may also be useful to the first responders who train first responders in military and para-military set up. This book mainly concentrates on an introduction to different bacterial and viral agents and other emerging threats like toxins. In addition, we have provided details about the detection, protection, and decontamination of these agents and this information is what the first responders to any biological emergency look for in a handbook. As indicated above, we have a chapter on the environmental detection of these agents and the newer instrumental, molecular, and immunological test systems that are presently available for use. Our idea was to make this an easy handbook that will provide the latest information to scientists, researchers in the area, and to some extent, persons who train the first responders in disaster management as well as in military and para-military organizations.

We have identified experts to write each of these chapters with the latest and updated information that is required for scientists and graduate students. This book addresses global problems by offering useful information and practical solutions. A standalone chapter is provided on every topic, with major references for further reading. This book represents the collective wisdom of more than 20 authors, and offers a unique text/reference source for those involved in research in the area of biological warfare. I must confess that some of the experts in the area initially agreed to contribute chapters for this book but could not fulfill their commitments for reasons best known to them. We still, however, managed to get some highly qualified and wellexperienced authors on the subject to write some of the chapters. I am also thankful to some young researchers at our institute who may not be experts in the field, but volunteered to write some of the chapters.

S.J.S. Flora

Biological warfare agents: History and modern-day relevance

S.J.S. Flora

National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research-Raebareli, Lucknow, India

History of biological warfare agents

Infectious diseases and war are always interlinked. Even without a precise understanding of how diseases were spread, it was understood early that dead animals or humans could cause disease. There are some accounts of biological warfare in the form of poison on arrows, and polluting wells and other source of water by opposing armies. However, apart from some rare well-documented events (Eitzen and Takafuji, 1997) it is often very difficult for historians and microbiologists to understand natural epidemics from alleged biological attacks, because little information is available for times before the advent of modern microbiology and the passage of time may also have distorted the reality of the past. Evidence from Persian, Greek, and Roman literature suggests the use of animal cadavers to contaminate wells and other sources of water around 300 BC, and in 400 BC, Scythian archers infecting their arrows by dipping them in decomposing bodies or in blood mixed with manure. In 190 BC during the Battle of Eurymed, Hannibal won a naval victory over King Eumenes II of Pergamon by firing earthen vessels full of venomous snakes onto the enemy ships. In the 12th century AD, during the battle of Tortona, Barbarossa used the bodies of dead soldiers to poison wells. During the siege of Caffa, a well-fortified Genoesecontrolled seaport (now Feodosia, Ukraine), in 1346, the attacking Tartar force experienced an epidemic of plague (Wheelis, 2002). The Tartars threw the cadavers of their deceased into the city, and it is believed that this has initiated a plague epidemic in the city. The outbreak of plague forced the retreat of the Genoese forces. The plague pandemic known as the Black Death spread throughout Europe, the Near East, and North Africa in the 14th century and was probably the most devastating public health disaster in recorded history. The ultimate origin of the plague remains uncertain: several countries in the Far East, China, Mongolia, India, and Central Asia have reported these instances in the past (Rauw, 2012). The biological warfare attack in Caffa is one of the terrible consequences in history when diseases were used as weapons.

During the battle between Russian and Swedish forces at Reval in Estonia in 1710, catapulted plague cadavers were used. In the 18th century, during the French

and Indian War, British forces in North America gave blankets from smallpox patients to the Native Americans to transmit the disease to the immunologically naïve tribes. In 1863, a Confederate surgeon was arrested and charged with attempting to import yellow fever-infected clothes into northern parts of the United States during the Civil War (Hunsicker, 2006). Biological warfare became more sophisticated against both animals and humans during the 1900s. The conception of Koch’s postulates and the development of modern microbiology during the 19th century made possible the isolation and production of stocks of specific pathogens (Robertson and Robertson, 1995). During World War I (WWI), some reports have suggested that the Germans developed horses and cattle inoculated with disease-producing bacteria, such as Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) and Pseudomonas pseudomallei (glanders), and shipped them to the United States, Russia, and other countries (Hugh-Jones); although Germany denied these reports. In 1924, a subcommittee of the Temporary Mixed Commission of the League of Nations found no hard evidence that bacteriological weapons had been employed in war. On June 17, 1925, the “Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare,” commonly called the Geneva Protocol of 1925, was signed. Because viruses were not differentiated from bacteria at that time, they were not specifically mentioned in the protocol. A total of 108 nations, including the five permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, eventually signed the agreement. However, the Geneva Protocol did not address verification or compliance, making it a “toothless” and less meaningful document. Several countries that were parties to the Geneva Protocol of 1925 began to develop biological weapons soon after its ratification. These countries included Belgium, Canada, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Japan, and the Soviet Union. The United States did not ratify the Geneva Protocol until 1975 (Riedel, 2004).

Biological agents to cause destruction have been used since 6th century BC, wherein it was the poisoning of wells and water supplies that was most common.

The very first deliberate act of spreading disease occurred in 1346 at the Siege of Caffa (Feodosia, Ukraine), when a Tartar army disposed its plague-ridden dead over the walls of the besieged city (Wheelis, 2002). Later, in 1763, during the French and Indian war, an English general intentionally distributed blankets contaminated with small pox scabs to the Native Americans loyal to the French, which caused a huge epidemic to kill the tribal people. The Germans also has their own bioweapon program for WWI, in which they purposely infected horses and other transport animals with disease causing microbes of anthrax and glanders (Frischknecht, 2003).

After WWI, the Geneva Protocol was signed banning biological weapons, which all countries in attendance signed except Japan.

Before the start of WWII, the Japanese produced bioweapons agents to cause anthrax, plaque, cholera, and shigellosis, for which field experiments were done on Chinese prisoners of war and civilians, which led to several thousand deaths (Barras and Greub, 2014). One such experiment included the use of ceramic bomblets containing plague-infected fleas and grain on Chinese cities including Nanking, which attracted rats bitten by fleas contaminated with plague causing microorganisms.

Characteristics of biological weapons

Major classes of living organisms that infect living hosts may depend upon the interactions between the host and the biological agent. These interactions may depend upon the individual, e.g., immune response, and nutritional and health status, and the environmental conditions to which the host is exposed, such as sanitation, water quality, etc. (Rauw, 2012). Some of the important characteristic features by which they can be classified are as follows (Table 2):

1. Virulence: The relative disease causing ability of a microorganism, which may differ from species to species.

2. Infectivity: The ability of the agent to enter, survive, and multiply inside the host, and what rate of infection it causes.

3. Incubation period: The time span between first exposure of infective agent and the first appearance of symptoms in the host body.

4. Lethality: The death causing ability of an organism. It varies from organism to organism and the virulence factor present in them.

5. Mode of transmission: How an organism can be transferred in the environment: by vector or without vector.

Table 2 Various type of warfare agents and their definition.

Characteristics

Definition

History

Chemical warfare agents Biological warfare agents

Use of chemicals made by humans for destruction of life

Use of living biological agents to kill living organisms

Nuclear warfare agents

Use of nuclear weapons for destruction of life

Not used in ancient time period Has been used for centuries First used near the end of World War II

Target Only those exposed to them Can also affect nontargeted individuals Can also affect nontargeted individuals

Cost

Rate of action

More expensive Less expensive

Almost immediately Takes time

Victims Fewer individuals are affected with the same dose of biological weapon

Reason for death

Production and storage area

More individuals are affected with the same dose of biological weapon

Poisoning Disease

Much bigger space Less space

Uses Used for targeted death

Used for mass extinction

More expensive

Slow to fast

Large number of victims

Genetic defects and mutations

Very large space

Used for mass extinction and causing defects in future generations

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