BIOTECHNOLOGY : IMPACT

ON BIOLOGICAL WARFARE &

BIO-DEFENCE

Introduction
Biotechnology may have colossal impact on biological warfare and biodefence.
since the branch is solaly hinged on the technical aspect of traditional biology
.as far as the biological warfare is concerned biotechnological applications can
support advanced biological warfare (ABW) weaponisation, dissemination &
delivery. such new agents and delivery systems would provied a variety of new
use options expending the BW paradigm.
If biodefence is taken under consideration the biotechnological applications can
provied new techniques including counterproliferation detection and
development of medical countermeasures.
Biological Warfare
 Biological warfare (BW) is the use of organisms that cause disease to
harm or kill an adversary’s military forces, population, food or livestoks.
 Fusarium head blight Early
biological warfare

Target
 Human: soldiers, civilian

 Commercial animals

 Commercial plants

 Environmental systems

Purpose:
 Weaken, terrify or punish the enemy to a degree which induces them to
comply with the attacker’s demands

Bioterrorism agents
Anthrax ( Bacillus anthracis) Q Fever(Coxiella
burnetii)

Plague (Yersinia pestis ) Ebola virus

Biotechnological Impact on
biological warfare
 Have the potential to revolutionise biological warfare by facilitating an
entirely new class of fully engineered agents reffered to as advanced
biological warfare (ABW) agents.

 Have potential to identify biochemical pathway critical for physiological

process and engineer specific ABW agents to exploit vulnarabilities.

 Have potential to develop future biological agents that could be rationally

engineered to target specific human biological system at molecular level.
such as cardiovascular, immunological, neurological, and gastrointestinal
system.

 Advances in biotechnology not only facilitate novel agents engineered to

attack human systems, will increasingly permit modification of existing
 agricultural pathogens and development of anti-agriculture and anti-
material BW agents

Biodefence

Definition
 Biodefense involves medical measures to protect people against
biological agents. This means medicines and vaccinations. It also means
medical research and preparations to defend against bioterrorist attacks.

 since September 11, 2001, the world has witnessed a growth in “new”
scientific approaches to tackling the threat of bioterrorism in the form of
disease surveillance and disease control.

 Anthrax, plague and small pox are some of the possible pathogens
terrorists could use against us; but now, researchers say jellyfish are
helping prevent these kinds of attacks.

Biotechnology & Bio-

defence
 Two classes of bio-detectors are especially promising: immuno-
fluorescence-based sensors (agent-specific miniature flow cytometers)
and DNA-recognition instruments (based on polymerase chain reaction
[PCR]). When used together, these are capable of state-of the- art
detection and identification of biological agents.
 Technology capable of having a single-cell microchip platform as a
toxicity sensor is already available.

 This technology has also been found to be useful in the production of

chemical-biological mass spectrometers that are used to detect biological
warfare agents.

Conclusion
 The technology has the potential to produce both astonishing medical
advances and dreadful bio weapons.
 The 21st century is witnessing a shift from the age of physics and
chemistry to that of biology, and from the industrial revolution era to a
biotech century.
 Bio-defence techniques have a much bigger role to play in society than
merely that related to bioterror.
 At present, the existing defences against biological weapons are
inadequate.But with the advancement of biotechnological tools in future
we must be capable to kick out bioterrorism.
 So the biotechnological platform will be leveraged in pharmaceutical, bio
warfare and bio-defence applications.