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 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. Human, animal and plant pathogens must be evaluated and prioritized from social-economic and significant adverse human health perspectives. This paper describes an evaluation of human, animal and plant pathogens and toxins as terrorism agents and can serve as the basis for scientific discussion or as an aid in defining the list of terrorism biological agents and toxins. This paper also shows the main vectors that can be used as a delivery system in hostile activities.