The Weaponisation of Mycotoxins

Abstract

Mycotoxins as weapons is a serious issue. The word “weaponisation” in the title of this chapter is poor grammatically, although it is useful as it is generally understood. Crucially, access to accurate information is required to enable appropriate responses for potential threats. The high interest created by a recent review of fungi and toxins as weapons indicated that further publications in the field are desirable: Paterson (2006a) remained at number 1 in Science Direct's “Top 25 Hottest Articles” (Mycological Research) for a year. Citation numbers put it fourth since 2006: Holstege et al. (2007) is instructive as it indicates just how seriously the threat is taken in the United States of America. The authors focus on trichothecene mycotoxins and particularly T-2 toxin. Of course, the reasons for the topicality were the mass attacks on citizens which have occurred this century, and the claim that aflatoxins had the potential to be used by Iraq. The recent attacks in the USA using anthrax spores via internal post also caused a great deal of concern: massive casualties have been predicted from anthrax released into very large cites. Dohnal et al. (2007) are also concerned with T-2 toxin. Latxague et al. (2007) focuses on anticrop bioterrorism and bioweapons against the agricultural sector. They appear to be more concerned with whole organisms, rather than purified mycotoxins per se. However, it is difficult to obtain a list of the fungi with which Latxague et al. are concerned, no doubt for security reasons. Mycotoxin-producing fungi need to be on the list, as do plant pathogens. Also, countries where crops are developed almost as a monoculture are at particular risk from natural pathogens [e.g. the fungus Ganoderma and the oil palm crop (Paterson et al. 2009)]. Pohanka et al. (2007) considered the issue of developing bioassays to detect mycotoxins. Finally, Casadevall and Pirofski (2006) provided a well-argued assessment concerning why human pathogenic fungi could usefully be given greater consideration as biowarfare and bioterrorism agents.