Biological warfare refers to the use of biological agents such as bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae, fungi, toxins as weapons.

Instead of the usual guns and bombs that war is generally associated with, bioweapons poison or infect their victims. Generally leading to a slower and less obvious death. Biological weapons or biological warfare can also be referred to as 'germ warfare' because of the large number of germs used in biological weapons. Many diseases and germs can be used in biological weapons including smallpox, Ebola and anthrax. Although biological weapons seem like a relatively new concept, they have actually been used since ancient times. For example the Assyrians contaminated enemy wells with ergot to trigger hallucinations and Greeks threw poisonous snakes onto enemy ships, and the British gave smallpox-infested blankets to Native Americans. . In the biblical times it is known that in exodus,God punished the Egyptians when the pharaoh refuse to free the Jews from slavery 10 plagues were inflicted on them which liberally interpreted represents a vague and crude form of biological warefare(or curse!)they were 1.Blood 2.vermin 3 frogs 4 flies 5 boils 6.murrains 7 locusts 8 darkness 9 hails and 10 slaying of the firstborn. 'biological warfare' can be separated into two different types of weapons. Biological weapons and chemical weapons. Biological weapons are based on organisms that occur naturally that cause disease.

Chemical weapons are poisons like mustard gas and nerve gases like cyclosarin.

Biological weapons are weapons of mass destruction, an effective attack can kill thousands, even people who are not targeted. Biological warfare is really a lot simpler than most people imagine it to be. For example if you put dog faeces in your friend's burger you are in essence waging a biological war against them. By spraying insecticides you're using a chemical weapon on insects. How biological weapons can be distributed: There are several ways in which biological weapons can be distributed. They can be attached or contained inside explosives

Normally biological weapons are distributed via aerosol sprays. It is done this way because it is efficient, easy and easily hidden

Another method is to simply insert the agent into something that is then given to someone or consumed by the adversary. For example perhaps poisoning a certain water supply, or covering a basketball in anthrax powder and throwing it at someone. The agent can also be absorbed or injected into the skin. This is a rather inefficient way of distributing biological weapons since every victim would have to be done individually. Thus, this might be suitable for assassinations and the like. Methods of protecting against biological weapons: Using masks is definitely the best way of protecting against biological weapons. The masks are capable of filtering airborne particles from biological weapons. However for it to be effective, the mask must be fitted to a person's face as particles can often get through the faceseals on poor fitting masks.

Antibiotics: Obviously medications like antibiotics would have to be taken if someone has been affected by biological weapons.

Also, vaccinations are used. There are currently vaccines available for anthrax, botuilinum toxin, tularemia, plague, Q fever and smallpox. These immunisations are generally only available to military personnel. Germ Warefare Amy Romano The Rosen Publishing Group, Sep 1, 2003

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/biological_warfare/page3_em.htm#how_biological_agents_are_delivered_and_detected http://science.howstuffworks.com/biochem-war2.htm - Howstuffworks - The basics of chemical and biological weapons