WI: greater use of tularemia in WWII

Tularemia is a rodent borne disease allegedly used by the Soviets during the battle of Stalingrad. It is in many ways an ideal biological weapon because of it's low mortality rate, high rate of infection, and lack of persistent effect. The main effect of tularemia is a debilitating fever. Untreated, only around 5% of the infected will die, hence making it usable when friendlies are in the area. When successfully used, it can temporarily disrupt the enemy while being mistaken as a normal wartime outbreak.

What if this weapon was widely available to all major participants and more often used in WWII? What particular battles would it be most effective?
 
If tularemai is used, I see the door opening wide for bioweapons in future conflicts. Should the Germans figure out what the Soviets are doing, perhaps chemical weapons then enter into the mix.

As to what battles could it have been interesting to see its use: Siege of Leningrad (Nazis could use it to break the will of an already starving and malnourished population), one or all of the Battles of Changsha (if the Japanese use it on the Chinese it could lead to breaking of the Nationalists' back and surrendering Hunan and the last true bastion of Chinese resistance to the Japanese), and perhaps even the Battle of the Bulge. I have my doubts as to whether the British or Americans would use bioweapons (never say never), but I have no doubts the Germans, Japanese, and Soviets would.
 
In his book Biohazard, Ken Alibek says that he is convinced that the Soviets used tularemia against the German forces around Stalingrad and that its also affected Soviet troops and civilians although many consider it to have been a natural outbreak.
 
Tularemia is a rodent borne disease allegedly used by the Soviets during the battle of Stalingrad.

PMN1 said:
In his book Biohazard, Ken Alibek says that he is convinced that the Soviets used tularemia against the German forces around Stalingrad and that its also affected Soviet troops and civilians although many consider it to have been a natural outbreak.

Is this legit? What do historians like Erickson or Beevor have to say?
 
The Germans called the Stalingrad battle the "Rattenkrieg", and the only well fed forces in Stalingrad were the rats. While tularemia is often called "rabbit fever" it can be carried by any rodent. In the environment of the Stalingrad battlefield the rat population was huge, and with the lack of hygiene for both sides, other rat borne disease such as typhus, also made their appearance.

Without going in to too much detail, delivering tularemia to the German held areas (bombs, arty shells etc), not technically feasible. Also, because of the "community" nature of rat populations, tularemia, typhus, hanta virus (not in USSR in WW2 just another example), plague (Yersinia Pestis) & so forth will spread far & wide, and the Red Army and any civilians suffer as much if not more than the Germans.

There is, however, excellent evidence that the Japanese used bio weapons against the Chinese. They had an extensive biowar research facility that used Chinese and some Allied prisoners as tst subjects (referred to as "logs"). The CO if this unit told all after the war, and then never stood trial but went into "witness protection".
 
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