La morva: da castigo divino ad arma biologica

For centuries prejudices and fears have prevented the understanding of the transmission of diseases from animals to humans, the so-called zoonoses, the cause of devastating epidemics. Among the zoonoses, glanders or "Achaean disease" is still the most feared today, because it is highly contagious and with a fatal outcome for both horses and humans. Due to these characteristics, the glanders have influenced the fate of wars since ancient times. The experience of the First World War served to experiment with more effective methods of diagnosis but also to test it as a biological weapon. The story of the glander, therefore, is useful for examining the relationship between science and warfare, between human medicine and veterinary medicine and, more generally, the relationship between man and animal.