SOIL-BORNE VIRUSES OF CROP PLANTS—POTENTIAL AGENTS FOR BIOTERRORIST ATTACKS?

摘要

According to a definition given by Madden and Wheels (2003) bioterrorism is the intentional use, by any human agent other than uniformed military personnel, of organisms (or their products) to cause harm (or death) to humans, animals, or plants. Since plants are the basis of nutrition, a massive attack on crop plants with pathogens is likely to have severe consequences for humans and animals. We have to consider crops as particularly vulnerable because they are 1. susceptible to many pathogens 2. grown in large areas (phenomenon of increasing field size in modern plant production) 3. impossible to protect (in a military sense) 4. poorly monitored, and therefore infections can easily occur unobserved and uncontrolled. Thus, in a military sense, crop plants are soft targets.