IP: Senate anthrax genetically matched to U.S. Army (USAMRIID) stocks

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49502-2001Dec15.html


Capitol Hill Anthrax Matches Army's Stocks
5 Labs Can Trace Spores to Ft. Detrick

Genetic fingerprinting studies indicate that the anthrax spores 
mailed to Capitol Hill are identical to stocks of the deadly bacteria 
maintained by the U.S. Army since 1980, according to scientists 
familiar with the most recent tests.

Although many laboratories possess the Ames strain of anthrax 
involved in this fall's bioterrorist attacks, only five laboratories 
so far have been found to have spores with perfect genetic matches to 
those in the Senate letters, the scientists said. And all those labs 
can trace back their samples to a single U.S. military source: the 
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) 
at Fort Detrick, Md.

"That means the original source [of the terrorist material] had to 
have been USAMRIID," said one of the scientists.

Those matching samples are at Fort Detrick; the Dugway Proving Ground 
military research facility in Utah; a British military lab called 
Porton Down; and microbial depositories at Louisiana State University 
(LSU) and Northern Arizona University. Northern Arizona University 
received its sample from LSU, which received its sample from Porton 
Down. Dugway and Porton Down got their samples directly from USAMRIID.

In another development yesterday, government health officials said 
they planned to recommend that about 3,000 people who were exposed to 
anthrax, including hundreds of Washington postal and Capitol Hill 
workers, be offered an experimental vaccine as a precaution in case 
antibiotic treatment alone failed to protect them from getting sick.

The FBI's investigation into the anthrax attacks is increasingly 
focusing on whether U.S. government bioweapons research programs, 
including one conducted by the CIA, may have been the source of 
deadly anthrax powder sent through the mail, according to sources 
with knowledge of the probe. The results of the genetic tests 
strengthen that possibility. The FBI is focusing on a contractor that 
worked with the CIA, one source said.

But it remains unknown which lab may have lost control of the 
material that apparently ended up in terrorist hands. One of the two 
scientists familiar with the genetic testing, who has been advising 
the government on the anthrax scare, said investigators still know 
little about security at Porton Down, though they have no reason to 
suppose it has been inadequate. Of the domestic labs, Dugway has 
attracted the most attention from the FBI, he said.

Dugway is also the only facility known in recent years to have 
processed anthrax spores into the powdery form that is most easily 
inhaled.
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