Pentagon says ‘live anthrax’ inadvertently shipped across US
The Pentagon revealed Wednesday that “live anthrax” was shipped, apparently by accident, across the country from a lab in Utah.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren assured “there are no risks to the public” and said an investigation is under way. But a defense official also told Fox News it is unknown at this time whether anyone was exposed to the live samples.
The material in question was prepared at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, as part of what was described as a “routine” research process. It was then sent out to Defense Department and commercial labs in nine states — the shipments were supposed to include only inactive, or dead, anthrax when they were transferred.
“These were supposed to be dead spores anthrax, called AG-1,” the defense official said.
But a private lab in Maryland, on May 22, informed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that they thought the samples contained live anthrax. The CDC then informed the Defense Department.
“We are collaborating with the CDC. We are investigating the inadvertent transfer of live anthrax from a DoD lab from Dugway Proving Ground, Utah,” Warren confirmed.
An Army research center, after hearing from the CDC, notified the eight companies that received samples across the nine states. Each company has locked down the samples, and all samples are in the process of being collected by the CDC.
The states that received the shipments are: Texas, Maryland, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia.
