A US Department of Defense review into the incident that led to live anthrax being sent to more than 80 laboratories in seven countries has found a “systemic … lack of specific standards” in the preparation and transport of weaponized pathogens.
“By any measure, this was a massive institutional failure with a potentially deadly biotoxin,” deputy secretary of defense Bob Work said in a press conference on Thursday.
The review pointed to “knowledge gaps” in the effectiveness of protocols used to render live spores inert for testing, and said that all the laboratories investigated “relied more on historical practices than validating the processes used”.
“This review taught us lessons we needed to learn,” Work said. “We were quite frankly surprised by them. We are shocked by these failures.”
The Department of Defense instigated the review after it emerged that live spores of the deadly pathogen were accidentally sent from Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, a US military facility that produces large quantities of Anthrax for testing, to 86 laboratories in 20 US states and the District of Columbia, as well as Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia, Italy and Germany.
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