At least 52 labs in 18 states may have received potentially live spores of anthrax, the Pentagon said, adding that the Defense Department has now identified four main batches of live anthrax that should have been inert and were used to create samples for research. In addition to the states, the suspect samples have also been sent to South Korea, Australia and Canada.
All four batches came from the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground laboratory in Utah. The facility is one of four military labs that manufactures inert samples of anthrax for research labs and military use.
On Wednesday the Pentagon said there are a total of 400 batches now in question at the Dugway facilities in Utah and three other military facilities in Maryland: Fort Detrick, the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center, and the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center.
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The Defense Department along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is testing all 400 batches, and as that 10-day testing process completes, the department will likely find that more batches beyond the four identified so far had live samples shipped from them, the Pentagon said.
In addition, the Pentagon and CDC are investigating the irradiation and testing process that was used to render the main batches inert. The goal is to discover how at least four of those batches, which were then used to produce smaller samples for shipment, could have survived the process.
Despite the fact that 31 personnel who would have come in close contact with the samples are now on the antibiotic Cipro, the Pentagon said that it is certain the greater public is not at risk. The department took great pains Wednesday to show the multi-layered shipping protections it uses when sending the samples, which are sometimes sent through commercial routes.
The department has been shipping the samples across the U.S. to labs for research for the last 10 years, but could not quantify how any samples it has shipped to labs over that time.
The 18 states are: California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina. Samples were also sent to Washington, D.C.
The department’s inquiry was initially triggered by a positive test coming from a lab in Maryland. The Pentagon said Wednesday that a second strain, named “Canadian Bison” the one it sent to Canada, has also come back positive.
The Pentagon has also launched a website with updates and information.
This story was first published on June 3 and has been updated.
