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LONDON, June 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Defense says it may have sent live anthrax to a lab in Great Britain, the fourth country to receive anthrax thought to be deactivated. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren on Tuesday said a UK-based lab may have received live anthrax in 2007.
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"Another lot came up positive and that lot had sent samples to the UK and Massachusetts," the BBC quoted Warren as saying.
The U.S. Department of Defense has announced in recent weeks the mistaken shipment of live anthrax spores to over 60 labs in at least 17 states and now four countries, including South Korea, Canada and Australia.
The samples were supposed to have been deactivated with gamma rays and used for training and research purposes, but a Maryland lab last month reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it had received live spores.
The Pentagon says similar shipments had been sent to labs in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina.
Some lab workers have been treated for exposure to the deadly bacteria, but none have fallen ill so far.
Anthrax as a serious infectious bacteria found naturally in soil. When ingested, it activates and spreads toxins throughout the body, resulting in illness and death.
According to the CDC, anthrax is "one of the most likely agents to be used in a biological attack."
The Pentagon and CDC are investigating whether more shipments of live spores were shipped out and why procedures to deactivate them failed. Labs who received any samples have been advised to cease working with them.
The Pentagon said results of its review of procedures and protocols involving the sterilization and shipping of anthrax will be released within the next month.
