Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is the toxin commonly associated with food poisoning. It is produced by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, and is known for causing acute vomiting and diarrhoea after hours after ingesting food stuff that has under gone temperature abuse. The symptoms are severely incapacitating, with few known lethal cases (if any).

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Biological Warfare

The US Army Chemical Warfare Service may have supplied a vial of SEB to OSS agents during the Second World War to incapacitate a Nazi agent in North Africa at the time of the D-day invasion to prevent effective handling of intelligence in the early hours of the invasion.

The United States weaponized SEB originally as agent PG, later UC, during the Cold War. It was anticipated to have a rate-of-action of several hours and a duration-of-action of 1 - 2 days. There was a crash program to deliver a usable weapon, and there was a plan to use it in the opening hours of an invasion of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but the plan was later rejected.

Field trails with the A/B 45-4 dry agent spray tank demonstrated that a 95 kg payload of UC was capable of neutralizing a 1,000 square mile target.

The ICt₅₀ of UC is 2 mg·min/m³, with a probit slope of 1. The LCt₅₀ is 5 mg·min/m³, and unlike the per oral route is known to have a neurotoxic effect when inhaled.