Chemical warfare animal toxins

As explained in Chapter 1, the toxicity of natural xenobiotics has exerted a selection pressure upon living organisms since very early in evolutionary history. There is abundant evidence of compounds produced by plants and animals that are toxic to species other than their own and which are nsed as chemical warfare agents (Chapter 1). Also, as we have seen, wild animals can develop resistance mechanisms to the toxic componnds prodnced by plants. In Anstralia, for example, some marsupials have developed resistance to natnrally occnrring toxins produced by the plants upon which they feed (see Chapter 1, Section 1.2.2). 

Shallow-water inhabitants are subject to a variety of predators but protect themselves with an arsenal of defense mechanisms. Sea urchins are covered in sharp spines, and anemones are armed with stinging cells. Sponges wage chemical warfare on their foes by producing toxins, and mobile animals simply... 

Many chemical compounds, some natural and some made by humans, show toxic effects in humans or other animals. Every toxin is harmful, but toxins that target the nervous system have been developed into chemical warfare agents, so the public concern about them is enhanced. 

The CWC has a wide scope, defining chemical weapons as munitions or other devices, specifically designed to cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or animals (but not plants). It thereby encompasses past, known and possible chemical warfare agents, including toxins such as ricin and saxitoxin, and refers, in its preamble, to the principles of international law which prohibit the use of herbicides as a method of warfare. It divides these chemicals and many of their precursors into three categories known as schedules. In Schedule 1, it effectively bans 12 groups of chemicals from manufacturing industry and commerce,... 

In nature, the art of chemical warfare may have reached its zenith with the innovation of venomous animals, those that not only contain poisonous toxins but also have the anatomical apparatus to inject those toxins directly into other animals. Venoms come in four different types cytotoxic, causing cell death proteolytic, dismantling the molecular structure around the area of the injection hemotoxic, causing failure within the cardiovascular system or neurotoxic, acting on the nervous system and the brain. 

TOXIN. A poisonous substance that occurs naturally in animals, bacteria, or plants. Examples include botulinum toxin, ricin, and tbe tri-chothecene mycotoxins. Some toxins can be produced artificially through chemical synthesis. The military relevance of toxins was recognized during World War I, when the U. S. Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) conducted research and production of selected toxins at the Catholic University of America. Weapons having toxins as their primary payload are controlled as both chemical weapons (CW) (under the Chemical Weapons Convention [CWC]) and biological weapons (BW) (under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention [BTWC]). Toxins have also seen use as assassination weapons. See also JUGLONE SAXITOXIN. 

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