Biological weapons
The basis for the international prohibition against biological warfare is the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling and transfer of biological weapons. Infectious and essentially non-contagious agents such as B. anthracis have traditionally been preferred for development by past state military programmes. Ensuring that material, equipment and technology are not misused is most difficult in the biological field because essentially all of it is dual-purpose in nature.
