什么是生物战

指军事上使用致病的物质，如细菌（包括引起炭疽和肉毒中毒）和病毒等，以及对抗这些致病物的方法。1925年日内瓦协定禁止在战争中使用生物武器，1972年七十多个国家签订生物和有毒武器条约，禁止生产、贮存或研制生物武器，并要求销毁现有的存货。禁止的原因是为了避免对这些物质失去控制，据说1347年在围攻克里米亚的卡法时曾发生过这种失控情况，当时蒙古人将鼠疫患者的屍体投进热那亚保卫者的城墙，後来热那亚人的船将细菌带到欧洲，造成黑死病的爆发流行。法国和印第安人战争中的英国人，以及19世纪的美国军队都曾将天花病人用过的毯子给了美洲印第安人。第一次世界大战中，德国曾使罗马尼亚骑兵的战马和美国的牲畜感染鼻疽病。1930年代，日本人曾用生物武器来对付中国。虽然国际禁止生产和使用，但一些国家如伊朗、伊拉克、俄罗斯和其他前苏联国家据说仍囤积了许多生物战制剂。

biological warfare

Military use of disease-producing agents, such as bacteria (including those that cause anthrax and botulism) and viruses, and the means for combating such agents. A 1925 Geneva protocol prohibited the use of biological agents in warfare, and in 1972 more than 70 countries signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, prohibiting the production, stockpiling, or development of biological weapons and requiring the destruction of existing stockpiles. One reason for the ban is to prevent an agent's escaping from control, as is said to have happened at the siege of Caffa in the Crimea in 1347, when the Mongols hurled the bodies of plague victims over the walls of the Genoese defenders and Genoese ships later carried the bacillus to Europe, causing the Black Death. The British in the French and Indian War, and U.S. Army units in the 19th century, gave blankets used by smallpox victims to American Indians. In World War I the Germans infected Romanian cavalry horses and U.S. livestock with the bacterial disease glanders. The Japanese used biological agents against China in the 1930s. Despite the international ban, a number of nations, including Iran, Iraq, and Russia and other former Soviet states, are believed to retain stocks of biological-warfare agents.