100,000 turkeys were dead, and the best scientific minds of 1960s England were baffled as to why.  Birds afflicted with the mysterious “Turkey-X Disease” would become lethargic and go off their feed, then die en masse.  Post-mortem studies revealed extensive liver damage, but efforts to isolate the bacteriological or viral culprit proved futile.  Concern became alarm as pheasants and ducks began showing symptoms of this illness, and as similar outbreaks were reported on farms as far away as Kenya.  Ultimately these outbreaks were traced to a batch of moldy Brazilian peanuts introduced into feed – and to aflatoxins, poisonous byproducts of the Aspergillus mold. 

When they are visible at all, aspergillus infestations look like typical green mold.  They can contaminate corn, peanuts, wheat, cottonseed, millet, and other crops.  Other fungal infections prefer cool and wet conditions; aspergillus thrives during droughts, when both plant resistance and competition from other fungi is lowest.  Improper drying of grain, or late harvesting, can also lead to increased aspergillus infestation, but even the most well-run farms lose crops to aspergillus, or are forced to sell their grain at a lower rate because of aflatoxin contamination.  Massive aflatoxin contamination sent corn farmers into bankruptcy throughout Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma in 1998. 

An aspergillus spore attack on the United States could cause Americans real economic hardship.  Losses in our corn and wheat crops would lead to increased feed prices, which would translate to higher prices on beef, chicken and pork.  In poorer countries who rely on U.S. exports these price increases might well lead to famine, not inconvenience.  In an even worse scenario, aspergillus spores would be released in a developing country.  American granaries regularly screen for aflatoxin and destroy sileage with unacceptably high aflatoxin levels.  These screening measures are not so universal elsewhere in the world… and even where they are, hunger will often force people to eat spoiled grain.  In 2001 acute aflatoxin poisoning killed a dozen people and sent hundreds more to the hospital in Kenya, while mass deaths among poor people in Russia and India were traced back to aflatoxin-poisoned rye and corn, respectively.

Many experts do not consider aflatoxin to be a particular bioterror threat.  It takes a comparatively high amount of aflatoxin to induce acute poisoning in humans – over a million times the dosage required for botulin.  In the short run, aflatoxins are not particularly incapacitating.  In the long run, or with repeated exposures, they are extremely dangerous.  Aflatoxins are among the most potent carcinogens known to man.  In areas of Africa where spoiled corn is regularly consumed, liver cancer kills ten times as many people as it does in the United States, and regular consumption of aflatoxin has also been linked to leukemia, protein starvation, birth defects, and other health hazards.  UN inspectors studying Iraq’s bioweapons capabilities found that the Iraqi Army had produced over 2,000 liters of aflatoxin.  To date there is no evidence that aflatoxin was used against American troops; however, a comparison of the effects of Aflatoxin exposure with “Gulf War Syndrome” certainly gives one cause to ponder.