The Pentagon Accidentally FedExed Live Anthrax Samples to Labs

Anthrax is the stuff of bioterrorist nightmares. On Wednesday, the Pentagon admitted that it had accidently sent out live anthrax samples to private and government laboratories in nine US states, and to a US military base in South Korea.

The mix-up apparently occurred as a Department of Defense lab in Dugway, Utah, intended to send out dead samples, but mistakenly shipped out lives one instead.

A statement from the Osan Air Base in South Korea explains that emergency response personnel swiftly annihilated the agent "after it was discovered the bacteria might not be an inert training sample as expected."

According to a report by the Guardian, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters Wednesday that there was both "no known risk to the general public", nor any confirmed cases of anthrax infection in exposed lab workers. CNN reports today that four US lab workers, and up to 22 overseas, have been placed in post-exposure treatment.

Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by the rod-shaped Bacillus anthracis bacteria. It scores highly in the biological weaponry charts as the microscopic spores can pass undetected inside everything from powders, food, sprays, and water.

The samples originated from a Department of Defense lab in Dugway, Utah. The Guardian reported that the lab was working as part of an effort to develop a field-based test to identify biological threats to the environment. The same lab was temporarily closed in 2011, when a vial of "nerve agent" went missing.

ABC reports that the live samples were sent out on April 30 to a military laboratory in Maryland. From there, they were FedExed out to laboratories in California, Texas, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York. Thought dead, the anthrax samples were sent out under less stringent conditions by FedEx than the live agent would normally receive.

The Department of Defence is currently working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate how the mishap occurred. The BBC reports that investigations will involve on-site testing as well as lab tests of the remaining samples.

This current incident is similar to a few other mishaps. In March 2014, the CDI shipped out contaminated bird flu samples to an external lab, and in June 2014 as many as 75 workers at the CDC were exposed to anthrax bacteria when researchers at the biosecurity laboratory failed to follow protocol and inactivate the bacteria. In December 2014, the CDC also mistakenly exposed a technician to the deadly Ebola virus, when samples thought dead were sent from one lab to another down the hall.