Operation Big Itch was a U.S. entomological warfare field test using uninfected fleas to determine their coverage and survivability as a vector for biological agents. [1] The tests were conducted at Dugway Proving Ground in 1954.
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Operation Big Itch was a U.S. entomological warfare field test using uninfected fleas to determine their coverage and survivability as a vector for biological agents. [1] The tests were conducted at Dugway Proving Ground in 1954.
Operation Big Itch was a September 1954 series of tests at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. [2] [3] The tests were designed to determine coverage patterns and survivability of the tropical rat flea ( Xenopsylla cheopis ) for use in biological warfare as disease vector. [3] The fleas used in these trials were not infected by any biological agent. [4] The fleas were loaded into two types of munitions and dropped from the air. [4] The E14 bomb and E23 bomb, which could be clustered into the E86 cluster bomb and E77 bomb, respectively. [3] When the cluster bombs reached 2,000 or 1,000 feet (600 or 300 m) the bomblets would drop via parachute, disseminating their vector. [3]
The E14 was designed to hold 100,000 fleas and the E23 was designed to hold 200,000 fleas but the E23 failed in over half of the preliminary Big Itch tests. [3] E23s malfunctioned during testing and the fleas were released into the aircraft where they bit the pilot, bombardier and an observer. [4] As a result, the remaining Big Itch tests were conducted using only the smaller capacity E14. [3] Guinea pigs were used as test subjects and placed around a 660-yard (600 m) circular grid. [3]
Big Itch proved successful, [3] [5] the tests showed that not only could the fleas survive the drop from an airplane but they also soon attached themselves to hosts. [6] The weapon proved able to cover a battalion-sized target area and disrupt operations for up to one day. [3] The one-day limit was due to the activity of the fleas; the air dropped fleas were only active for about 24 hours. [2]
Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a U.S. Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about 85 mi (137 km) southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and 13 mi (21 km) south of the 2,624 sq mi (6,800 km2) Utah Test and Training Range.
The United States biological weapons program officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Over the course of its 27-year history, the program weaponized and stockpiled the following seven bio-agents :
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The M115 anti-crop bomb, also known as the feather bomb or the E73 bomb, was a U.S. biological cluster bomb designed to deliver wheat stem rust.
Entomological warfare (EW) is a type of biological warfare that uses insects to interrupt supply lines by damaging crops, or to directly harm enemy combatants and civilian populations. There have been several programs which have attempted to institute this methodology; however, there has been limited application of entomological warfare against military or civilian targets, Japan being the only state known to have verifiably implemented the method against another state, namely the Chinese during World War II. However, EW was used more widely in antiquity, in order to repel sieges or cause economic harm to states. Research into EW was conducted during both World War II and the Cold War by numerous states such as the Soviet Union, United States, Germany and Canada. There have also been suggestions that it could be implemented by non-state actors in a form of bioterrorism. Under the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention of 1972, use of insects to administer agents or toxins for hostile purposes is deemed to be against international law.
Operation May Day was a series of entomological warfare (EW) tests conducted by the U.S. military in Savannah, Georgia, in 1956.
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Operation Big Buzz was a U.S. military entomological warfare field test conducted in the U.S. city of Savannah, Georgia in 1955. The tests involved dispersing over 300,000 mosquitoes from aircraft and through ground dispersal methods.
The E14 munition was a cardboard sub-munition developed by the United States biological weapons program as an anti-crop weapon. In a series of field tests in 1955, the E14 was loaded with fleas and air-dropped.
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The E48 particulate bomb was a U.S. biological sub-munition designed during the 1950s for use with the E96 cluster bomb.
Operation Magic Sword was a 1965 U.S. military operation designed to test the effectiveness of the sea-borne release of insect vectors for biological agents.