Biological warfare

Biological warfare is the deliberate use of disease-causing organisms or biological toxins to harm people, animals, or crops for military or political purposes.

Biological weapon: A device, organism, or toxin intended to cause disease or death through biological action. The weapon delivers the pathogen or toxin used in biological warfare.
Siege of Caffa: A 1346 siege of the Genoese port of Caffa by the Golden Horde. A later account alleged that attackers cast plague victims’ bodies into the besieged city.
Biological Weapons Convention: A 1972 treaty prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons. It is the principal international ban on biological warfare.
Bioterrorism: The deliberate use or threatened use of biological agents to cause fear, illness, or death for political or ideological aims. It applies biological violence outside conventional state warfare.
Biological Weapons Convention verification: Measures to determine whether states comply with the Biological Weapons Convention. The treaty lacks a standing verification organization and routine inspection system.
Anthrax: An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax spores have been developed and used as a biological weapon.
British biological warfare program: The United Kingdom’s government program to research and develop biological weapons during the Second World War. Its Gruinard Island trials tested anthrax as a weapon against livestock.
Geneva Protocol: A 1925 treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in war. It banned use but did not originally prohibit development or possession.
Crop warfare: The deliberate destruction of crops or livestock using biological agents as a means of conflict. Attacks on agriculture can undermine food supplies and economies without directly targeting people.
Dual-use research: Research that can produce both beneficial applications and knowledge or tools that could enable harm. The same biology that supports medicine can also inform weapon development.

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