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tis, Newcastle disease, fowl plague, hog cholera, rabies, and Rift Valley fe-
ver. In the case of rinderpest, scientists were successful in developing
strains (the Turkish) transmissible not only through inhalation but also
through saliva on the feed trough.
34
In October 1954 the BWRP reviewed the Joint US-Canadian antiani-
mal program, noting that three viruses were presently available as “ef-
ficient agent[s] for the destruction of...food-bearing animals. 1. Cattle
(Rinderpest); 2. Swine (African Wart Hog disease) [African swine fever];
3. Chickens (Fowl Plague).” Despite these successes, four years later the
Grosse Isle program was cancelled, apparently because of the US decision
to discontinue its involvement in antianimal BW research. For their part,
DRB authorities were only too happy to get out of this field, particularly
after the unfounded 1952 allegations that germ warfare experiments at
Suffield had been responsible for the devastating epidemic of foot and
mouth disease that had ravaged western Canadian cattle herds.
35
DRES scientists had been extensively involved with a range of other
Tripartite projects calculated to improve the quality of BW munitions and
delivery systems for lethal agents, and also in developing strategies for
greater utilization of agents such as
Brucella suis
and
Coxiella burnetii
(Q
fever), “used to incapacitate rather than to kill.” As a result, there was a
continual flow of defense scientists between DRES, Camp Detrick, and
Porton Down as part of an elaborate division of labor that usually cen-
tered upon US priorities and policies.
36
The scale of this cooperation was
outlined in a Canadian report submitted to the 1958 Tripartite meetings
which highlighted four major trends that promised to transform BW into
a powerful strategic weapon: “a) The feasibility of large area coverage
with inert particles has been demonstrated both in the UK and US, even
under random weather conditions; (b) Considerable success has been
achieved in the US in spray devices for producing the fine aerosols neces-
sary to penetrate the lungs; (c) Work in Canada on the mechanism of
death of airborne organisms led to a biochemical explanation which in
turn led to significant success in decreasing the death rate of airborne
bacteria; (d) Canadian work established the feasibility of developing new
diseases by adaptation of viruses from one species to another.” Within the
Tripartite alliance there was a consensus that most attention should be
devoted to “the large area coverage concept of BW with a view to its eval-
uation under military conditions.” In order to consolidate large area con-
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