According to Herodotus, during the 4th century BC Scythian archers dipped their arrow tips into decomposing cadavers of humans and snakes or in blood mixed with manure, supposedly making them contaminated with dangerous bacterial agents like Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium tetani, and snake venom. During the First Sacred War in Greece, in about 590 BC, Athens and the Amphictionic League poisoned the water supply of the besieged town of Kirrha (near Delphi) with the toxic plant hellebore. Although the Assyrians knew of ergot, a parasitic fungus of rye which produces ergotism when ingested, there is no evidence that they poisoned enemy wells with the fungus, as has been claimed.Īccording to Homer's epic poems about the legendary Trojan War, the Iliad and the Odyssey, spears and arrows were tipped with poison. The earliest documented incident of the intention to use biological weapons is possibly recorded in Hittite texts of 1500–1200 BC, in which victims of tularemia were driven into enemy lands, causing an epidemic. Viral agents: Smallpox, Viral hemorrhagic fevers, etc.Bacterial agents: Anthrax, Brucella, Tularemia, etc.In the 20th century, sophisticated bacteriological and virological techniques allowed the production of significant stockpiles of weaponized bio-agents: Use of biologically inoculated fabrics and persons.Use of microbes, biological toxins, animals, or plants (living or dead) in a weapon system.Deliberate contamination of food and water with poisonous or contagious material.( April 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)īefore the 20th century, the use of biological agents took three major forms: ![]() ![]() Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. Please help by adding a lead section that introduces the topic and concisely summarizes the body.
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