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Glanders is a contagious, zoonosis infectious disease caused by the bacteria Burkholderia mallei, which primarily occurs in , , and , but can also be contracted by dogs and cats, pigs, goats, and human beings. The term glanders derives from the Middle English word glaundres and from the Old French word glandres, which both denote glands. Other terms for the glanders disease are the , the , the , and the .
Glanders is endemic in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. Elsewhere, glanders has been eradicated in North America, Australia, and most of Europe, by way of the zoological observation and destruction of infected and sick animals and quarantine restrictions upon the importation of said animals. Occurrences of glanders have not been reported in the U.S. since 1945, until a laboratory accident in 2000, wherein a laboratory researcher was accidentally exposed the Burkholderia mallei bacterium. In the U.K., glanders is a notifiable disease, and there have been no occurrences reported since 1928.
From the Middle Ages to the 1900s, glanders was a significant threat to armies. Before the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, glanders may have afflicted and greatly diminished the horses of Marshal Tallard's cavalry, helping the Duke of Marlborough win the battle.
Glanders was a significant problem for civilian use of horses, as well. In the 18th-century veterinary hospital at the École Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, glanders was the most common disease among their equine patients and the one most likely to cause death.
Due to the high mortality rate in humans and the small number of organisms required to establish infection, B. mallei is regarded as a potential biological warfare or bioterrorism agent, as is the closely related organism, B. pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis. During World War I, glanders was believed to have been spread deliberately by German Empire agents to infect large numbers of Russian Empire horses and mules on the Eastern Front. Other agents attempted to introduce the disease in the United States and Argentina. This had an effect on troop and supply convoys, as well as on artillery movement, which were dependent on horses and mules. Human cases in Russia increased with the infections during and after WWI. The deliberately infected horses, civilians, and prisoners of war with B. mallei at the Unit 731 Pingfang (China) Institute and Unit 100 facilities during World War II. The U.S. studied this agent as a possible biological weapon in 1943–44, but did not weaponize it. U.S. interest in glanders (agent LA) continued through the 1950s, except it had an inexplicable tendency to lose virulence in the lab, making it difficult to weaponize. Between 1982 and 1984, the Soviet Union allegedly used weaponized B. mallei during the Soviet–Afghan War.
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