Animal disease as a weapon: a short history

摘要

Animals are an important source of nutrition. They have also played(and in some parts of the world, continue to play) an important rolein logistics and transport. Animalsare closely woven into the fabric of our societies. Their widespread illness or death can have economic, health, socio-political and military consequences. Targeting them with weapons can damage the stability of a country. As a result, both state and non-state actors have acquired and used biological weapons to target animals. This paper provides an overview of four offensive weapons programmes run by states and looks at selected examples of similar efforts by other actors [1, 2, 3, 4]