U.S. military mistakenly ships anthrax to TN

The Pentagon says it inadvertently shipped live anthrax spores to as many as nine laboratories - including a Tennessee location - and is investigating how that happened.
The Pentagon says it inadvertently shipped live anthrax spores to as many as nine laboratories - including a Tennessee location - and is investigating how that happened.
photo The Pentagon says it inadvertently shipped live anthrax spores to as many as nine laboratories - including a Tennessee location - and is investigating how that happened.

WASHINGTON The Pentagon says it inadvertently shipped live anthrax spores to as many as nine laboratories - including a Tennessee location - and is investigating how that happened.

The labs were supposed to receive dead, or inactivated, anthrax samples for research use.

Spokesman Col. Steve Warren says the Pentagon is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to retrieve the samples.

He says the government has confirmed one shipment contained live spores and suspects eight others did, too. Warren says the government believes there are no risks to the public.

The live spores were shipped from Dugway Proving Ground in Utah - a Defense Department facility - to government and commercial labs in Texas, Maryland, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia. The name of the lab in Tennessee has not been released.

Contact with anthrax spores can cause severe illness.

The CDC issued the following statement when contacted by The Tennessean:

"CDC is investigating the possible inadvertent transfer of a select agent from the U. S. Department of Defense (DOD) to labs in nine states," At this time we do not suspect any risk to the general public.

The CDC investigation was started after a request for technical consultation from a private commercial lab. The lab was working as part of a DOD effort to develop a new diagnostic test to identify biological threats. Although an inactivated agent was expected, the lab reported they were able to grow live Bacillus anthracis.

CDC is working in conjunction with state and federal partners to conduct an investigation with all the labs that received samples from the DOD. The ongoing investigation includes determining if the labs also received other live samples, epidemiologic consultation, worker safety review, laboratory analysis, and handling of laboratory waste.

All samples involved in the investigation will be securely transferred to CDC or Laboratory Response Network (LRN) laboratories for further testing. CDC has sent officials from the CDC Federal Select Agent Program to the DOD labs to conduct onsite investigations."

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