The number of states and countries that received potentially deadly samples of anthrax from a U.S. military lab continues to grow, as the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that Canada and 12 U.S. states have been notified they received live samples.
The list continues to grow because the Defense Department is testing each of its master strains of anthrax it maintains at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Grounds laboratory in Utah. Three of the master strains, previously thought to be dormant, have since tested positive for live spores.
Few details were provided, but the Pentagon confirmed that the 12 states are: California, Washington, Texas, Utah, Tennessee, Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Delaware. In addition, potentially live samples were sent to South Korea, Canada and Australia.
“We have informed the Canadians what was shipped to them,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said on Tuesday. He emphasized that only one lab so far, in Maryland, has tested positive for live anthrax.
The department is looking at the irradiation procedures at Dugway to see how the process may have not fully destroyed the live anthrax spores.
