Biological Warfare Agents, Toxins, Vectors and Pests as Biological Terrorism Agents
Abstract:
The threat and use of biological agents for warfare and terrorism purposes has a long history. As the human, animal and plant pathogens and toxin lists will be hard to define we propose several tables of enlisted pathogens and toxins with important criteria on the basis of which a decision can be made to include in or exclude from a list of biological agents and toxins. Human, animal and plant pathogens as a biological terrorism or warfare agents have the capacity to cause disease and potentially be used to threaten humans, animals and staple crops. From a social-economic and significant adverse human health impacts, human, animal and plant pathogens must be evaluated and prioritized. This paper describes of evaluation of human, animal and plant pathogens and toxins as terrorism agents and can serve as the basis for scientific discussion and as help on defining the list of terrorism biological agents and toxins. This paper also discuses and shows the main vectors that can be used as a terrorism delivery system or biological agents in hostile activities. The main pests that include the invertebrates such as insects and arthropods with potential terrorism and military use are presented.