U.S.
military says may have mishandled organism that causes plague
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[September 11, 2015] WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The U.S. military, stung this year for mistakenly shipping
live anthrax samples, said on Thursday its labs were being investigated
for possibly mishandling other organisms, including one that causes
plague.
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The disclosure came a week after the Army declared a moratorium on
the production, handling, testing and shipment of biological agents
and toxins.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a
statement that it was trying to determine whether there were
problems with record keeping and quality management or whether there
were unapproved shipments.
"At this time, there is nothing to suggest risk to the health of
workers or the general public," the CDC said.
The Army said the latest investigation dated back to an Aug. 17
inspection at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Maryland,
where the CDC raised questions as to whether a strain of Yersinia
pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, was
fully virulent.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the sample was "not in a
containment area, but in a freezer outside of (a) containment area."
Testing done so far by the Army showed the sample was
non-infectious, he said, although more tests were ongoing.
"That's the scientific work that's being done at this particular
time determining exactly what happened there and whether or not,
again, there was mislabeling," Cook said.
The Army said the CDC raised questions about labeling of other
material, including derivatives of equine encephalitis viruses.
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The CDC said it was investigating issues involving pathogens
maintained at four Defense Department labs.
In late May, officials discovered live anthrax had been shipped to
researchers in the United States and other countries, and in July
the Pentagon said the error exposed major problems in how it handles
the killer bacteria.
A Pentagon investigation found live anthrax spores were sent from
Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to labs in 20 states and the District
of Columbia, plus Japan, Britain, South Korea, Australia, Canada,
Italy and Germany.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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