Biology Reference
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low-up trials at Suffield during the summer of 1950. Further confirma-
tion about agent performance was recommended at the fifth Tripartite
meeting (1952), when it was agreed that munitions tests using
Brucella
suis
and
Francisella tularensis
would take place at DRES in the summer of
1953. Scientists from Detrick and Porton agreed to provide agents and
equipment.
14
Between 1945 and 1950 there were a number of field tests at Suffield
with various BW munitions, using both the 4-pound bomb and the 500-
pound cluster bomb.
15
The extent of Canada's activity was revealed in a
January 1949 report of the DRB Bacteriological Warfare Research Panel
(BWRP), which described and prioritized the various BW projects. On
the assumption “that each agent would require its own munition,” DRB
scientists decided to assign first place to botulinum toxin, followed by
“non-sporulating species such as
Brucella, Tularaemia
or Melioidosis
(Whitmore's Bacillus).”
16
There was also a consensus that the DRB
should establish a biological pilot plant for the production of “a number
of agents with the same equipment.”
17
In addition, there was consider-
able discussion about the dissemination of agents either through aero-
sols or by use of insect vectors, preferably those “found in the larger
populated areas of likely enemy countries”—obviously either the Soviet
Union or China.
18
In this regard, Guilford Reed's sophisticated work on
the possibilities of using plague-infected fleas was regarded as quite
promising, particularly since the project also involved US researchers.
19
In keeping with Canada's arctic image, many of the DRES trials at-
tempted to determine the effect of cold-weather conditions on bacterial
and viral aerosols, as well as exploring the possibilities of using CBW in
the arctic environment.
20
With the escalation of the Cold War, BW cooperation between Canada
and the US increased substantially. In December 1951, for instance,
Omond Solandt was informed that the US Air Force was “giving serious
consideration to special weapons” and was preparing an inventory of
possible “areas where user tests of live agents can be undertaken.” The
US Air Force was particularly interested in the Royal Canadian Air Force
base at Cold Lake, Alberta, “since the climate there should be similar to
many parts of European Russia.” Suffield was its second choice, with the
joint US-Canadian arctic research center at Churchill, Manitoba, another
possibility. However, the DRB was insistent that the US military could not
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