Accession Number:

ADA468243

Title:

Next Generation Bioweapons: The Technology of Genetic Engineering Applied to Biowarfare and Bioterrorism

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

AIR UNIV MAXWELL AFB AL

Personal Author(s):

• Ainscough, Michael J.

Report Date:

2002-04-01

Pagination or Media Count:

49.0

Abstract:

The history of warfare and the history of disease are unquestionably interwoven. Throughout the history of warfare, disease and non-battle injury have accounted for more deaths and loss of combat capability than from actual battle in war itself. The most striking example is the great influenza pandemic during World War I that killed 20 million people or more worldwide in 1918. Although this was a naturally occurring event, what if a country could create a biological agent that could yield the same catastrophic loss of life on the enemy That, in essence, is the potential effect of applying genetic engineering for biological warfare BW or bioterrorism BT. Today, we face not only natural diseases including emerging infectious diseases, but also threats of BW or BT, possibly with genetically engineered agents, that may resist known therapies. In simple terms, genetic engineering is the process of humanan intervention to transfer functional genes DNA between two biological organisms. In the BWBT context, it is the manipulation of genes to create new pathogenic characteristics increased survivability, infectivity, violence, drug resistance, etc. Organisms with altered characteristics are the new generation biological weapons.

Descriptors:

• *BIOLOGICAL AGENTS
• *GENETIC ENGINEERING
• *BIOTERRORISM
• WARFARE
• COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS
• DISEASES
• HISTORY
• GENES
• LOSSES
• CHEMICAL ORDNANCE
• DRUGS
• NONCOMBATANT
• INFLUENZA
• CATASTROPHIC CONDITIONS
• INFECTIOUS DISEASES
• TRANSFER
• WOUNDS AND INJURIES
• BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
• DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACIDS
• SURVIVABILITY
• GLOBAL

Subject Categories:

• Chemical, Biological and Radiological Warfare

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE