Creation of a biological weapon!

As I already mentioned in my first CAJ-post, Biological Warfare (BW) is the practice of infecting people with an infectious disease caused by microorganisms such as viruses or bacteria. It can, however, also be used to harm crops or animals and thus have an effect on people. BW is, due to the progress in biotechnology, highly effective and can be adjusted to almost every need.

In order to create a biological weapon several steps have to be taken. First of all, a suitable biological agent has to be chosen, acquired and cultivated until there are sufficient quantities of the pathogen (Krankheitserreger). The choice of an agent already requires detailed knowledge as numerous characteristics have to be taken into account. Some of these would be the agent's :

• pathogenicity -> how much of the agent is needed to cause the disease
• incubation period -> how much time passes between infection and outbreak of the disease
• virulence -> how debilitating (schwächend) the disease is
• transmissibility -> how easily the disease spreads

Nowadays the chosen pathogen can either be harvested from its natural environment or bought from a microbiology laboratory or a bank. Toxins, however, can also be created with the help of its DNA and bacteria. While the harvest usually leads to much work such as purification and tests on its exact characteristics, buying them usually requires certain security measures.
When the agent is in available, it can be modified and altered until it targets exactly what or who its creator wishes to attack. It can be modified to have a shorter incubation period, to be more aggressive when broken out, to spread more easily or to be more resistant to possible treatments.
When everything is the way the creator wants it, the agent is ready for its release. This is again a little difficult because the microorganism leaves the perfect artificial environment that was created to grow it and is now exposed to stresses like temperature, ultraviolet radiation and many more. The agents are often frozen, freeze-dried, converted into a stable solid, liquid or gaseous solution or powdered to ensure their effectiveness and then dispersed in whatever state they are.

Some of the main differences between BW and other means of mass destruction such as nuclear and chemical weapons are the following:

• the release of an agent is barely ever detectable
• the first sign for the use of biological weapons is usually someone showing symptoms, getting sick or dying
• these diseases often spread without someone realizing because it's possible that someone is infected but shows no symptoms yet due to a long incubation period 
• while the release of the agent might be in Asia the outbreak of the disease can be (e.g.) in Africa because of the incubation period and the differences in susceptibility (Anfälligkeit) of the individuals exposed to the agent

Because of the fact that pathogens are not that difficult to get, that the equipment required is easily available and also that many of the procedures needed are described in published scientific literature, it has become fairly easy to create a biological weapon. Of course, it is still related to much difficulty, but with a sufficient amount of time, money and knowledge it can be achieved. This is actually rather scary, because all of these three requirements can be obtained if you're only determined enough the create a biological weapon.

http://www.fas.org/programs/bio/bwintro.html