Brazil’s Military Penal Code (1969) prohibits the spreading of epidemics or infestations in a location under military control which could result in damage to forests, crops, grazing pastures or animals used for economic or military purposes. 

At the Fourth Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1996, Brazil stated that biological weapons, “given their sheer destructive force, indiscriminate effects and ghastly human toll … have from their inception generated international abhorrence”. It further emphasized that it had always been a keen participant in efforts to rid the world of biological weapons. With reference to the Biological Weapons Convention, it stated that it had “spared no effort in giving its contribution with a view to perfectioning and strengthening this major international instrument”. 

In 2005, Brazil’s president adopted the National Defence Policy, which states: “Brazil supports an international order based on … the prohibition of … biological … weapons”.