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The Anthrax Thread

ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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US army plans to bulk-buy anthrax

10:00 24 September 2005

NewScientist.com news service
David Hambling

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8044

THE US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons.

A series of contracts have been uncovered that relate to the US army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. They ask companies to tender for the production of bulk quantities of a non-virulent strain of anthrax, and for equipment to produce significant volumes of other biological agents.

Issued earlier this year, the contracts were discovered by Edward Hammond, director of the Sunshine Project, a US-German organisation that campaigns against the use of biological and chemical weapons.

One "biological services" contract specifies: "The company must have the ability and be willing to grow Bacillus anthracis Sterne strain at 1500-litre quantities." Other contracts are for fermentation equipment for producing 3000-litre batches of an unspecified biological agent, and sheep carcasses to test the efficiency of an incinerator for the disposal of infected livestock.

Major concern
Although the Sterne strain is not thought to be harmful to humans and is used for vaccination, the contracts have caused major concern.

"It raises a serious question over how the US is going to demonstrate its compliance with obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention if it brings these tanks online," says Alan Pearson, programme director for biological and chemical weapons at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington DC. "If one can grow the Sterne strain in these units, one could also grow the Ames strain, which is quite lethal."

The US renounced biological weapons in 1969, but small quantities of lethal anthrax were still being produced at Dugway as recently as 1998.

It is not known what use the biological agents will be put to. They could be used to test procedures to decontaminate vehicles or buildings, or to test an "agent defeat" warhead designed to destroy stores of chemical and biological weapons.

Highly provocative
There are even fears that they could be used to determine how effectively anthrax is dispersed when released from bombs or crop-spraying aircraft. "I can definitely see them testing biological weapons delivery systems for threat assessment," says Hammond.

Whatever use it is put to, however, the move could be seen as highly provocative by other nations, he says. "What would happen to the Biological Weapons Convention if other countries followed suit and built large biological production facilities at secretive military bases known for weapons testing?"

A spokesperson for Dugway said the anthrax contract is still at the pre-solicitation stage, and the base has not yet acquired the agent. They refused to say what it will be used for.

Related Articles
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http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7976
09 September 2005
Milk supplies at risk from terrorist toxin
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7601
29 June 2005
Analyzing the Anthrax Attacks by Ed Lake
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns? ... 624972.300
30 April 2005
Click to expand...

Edit to amend title.
 
:shock: Yikes. Let's hope it's for creating inoculations - it would make more sense.

I believe a lot of bad things about the government here in the states, but I can hardly believe they're stockpiling anthrax.

Of course, with the transparency level of the Bush administration, who knows? They're certainly not going to tell us, at any rate. :x
 
I don't believe innoculations are within Dugway's brief, and the volumes are ridicululous. I suspect they're going to be testing weaponisation, which would be fine except for that business with the anthrax letters in 2001. Where exactly did the anthrax for that come from?

The one for the sheep carcasses is odd too. If you're testing livestock disposal, then the challenge is doing big carcasses like cattle. Why test sheep unless you're really testing for something sheep-sized? And why ask for them to be delivered in body bags...?
 
Well, I have been sitting here trying to figure this one out.....
I don't think it is for the manufacture of weapons, we have enough WMD's already. I am almost convinced that it is for research, but what keeps looping through my mind is the amounts of the stuff and the machines to make even more. The only reason I can think of to use a chemical like that would be the benefit of being able to disperse it over a large area such as a desert. Which would make sense in a war of attrition. I just can't imagine a scenario were we would be in such dire peril. I think I will be working on this quandary for a little while.
Now what really bugs the shit outta me is this.....
Whatever use it is put to, however, the move could be seen as highly provocative by other nations, he says. "What would happen to the Biological Weapons Convention if other countries followed suit and built large biological production facilities at secretive military bases known for weapons testing?"
Click to expand...
I had hoped that some one in the current regime would have the sense to know that we can not just continue to flaunt our superior military strength with an air of untouchability. I can envision this as being taken far more seriously by the international community than the invasion of Iraq or the saber rattling against Iran. It will be very interesting to see El Smirko address this in a press conference (if he even does)
I can reconcile for myself much of what America does and the weapons we hold, I find this revelation rather disturbing. It is one more thing that makes it easy for certain people to compare present day America to Germany of the 1930-40's.
"I hope 2008 does not come too late" I think I shall print that up as a bumper sticker
I saw this bumper sticker the other day, make of it what you will
"Support our Troops....pall bearers needed"
Peace
=^..^=217
 
"I don't think it is for the manufacture of weapons, we have enough WMD's already."

And it's a harmless strain anyway, but useful for developing weapon systems - strictly for threat assessment, of course.
 
Microbes: New Evidence for Courtroom

Microbes: New Evidence for Courtroom
By PAUL ELIAS,
AP Biotechnology Writer
Fri Sep 30, 3:35 PM ET



It has been four years since a spate of anthrax poisonings killed five people, and the murderer is still on the loose.

Many investigative missteps occurred in the first days when those packages of anthrax began showing up in the mail — including the federal government's refusal to immediately acknowledge that a crime had been committed.

Combining lessons from such missteps with advances in microbiology like gene sequencing, scientists and law enforcement authorities are now working together to make "microbial forensics" as potent an investigative tool as DNA evidence.

Each microbe, whether anthrax, HIV or E. coli, has its own genetic signature, which can be used to trace the source of a disease outbreak.

Virus hunters have been doing this for years to track naturally occurring outbreaks: SARS investigators two years ago were able to track that disease's origins in its first human victim, who spread it to others staying at a Hong Kong hotel.

Last year, the FBI created an elite committee of scientists and law enforcement officials to develop ways to bring such virus hunting skills to crime investigations. One goal is to train more doctors and other first responders to be able to identify when a bioterrorism attack has occurred and sound the alarm.

A big lesson learned from the anthrax attacks is that simply watching emergency rooms for disease outbreaks — the government's chief surveillance strategy — isn't effective, said Dr. Larry Bush, the Atlantis, Fla., doctor who diagnosed the first anthrax case in October 2001 and had no doubt his patient, American Media Inc. photo editor Bob Stevens, was purposely infected. Stevens died days later.

"By the time you start seeing dozens of people walking around with a rash, the smallpox is already out of the box," said Bush.

A paper published this past week in the Public Library of Science's Biology journal details the first extensive evidence-gathering guidelines for doctors to follow when they suspect a biological crime.

Doctors are urged to preserve not only tissue samples but other more traditional pieces of evidence, such as clothing, that can be later examined for fingerprints. They are also urged to keep detailed medical records.

The goal is to develop consistent and valid scientific processes that can be used as evidence in court, just as DNA evidence can identify culprits or exonerate the innocent.

During the 2001 anthrax attacks, Bush ordered all blood and tissue samples taken from Stevens to be saved, a decision for which he was later applauded because those specimens will be vital if a criminal case ever gets filed.

Because inhaled anthrax infections are so rare, Bush extensively questioned his comatose patient's family, leading him to conclude that a crime had been committed.

Four years later, microbial evidence has become even more important, because an increasing number of microbes have had their entire genetic makeup mapped and their DNA blueprints published.

Though biological crimes are rare, they do occur and they aren't limited to terrorist attacks.

Microbial evidence was first introduced in a U.S. court in 1998 to convict a Lafayette, La., doctor of attempted murder for injecting an estranged lover with HIV taken from one of his patients. He had told her it was a vitamin B-12 injection. But the HIV from the doctor's patient and his victim were identical enough to persuade a judge to sentence him to 50 years in prison.

The conviction was upheld in appellate court and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, validating the use of microbial evidence.

But getting that case to court in the first place was tough — the local police officers and prosecutors initially didn't believe the victim's accusations about a well-respected doctor in a small town.

Recognizing that a disease has resulted from a crime is a big challenge, and doctors don't want to sound a false alarm for an illness that occurred naturally.

"I'm not sure our law enforcement is sophisticated enough to recognize a (microbial) crime," said Rock Harmon, an Alameda County prosecutor who is a member of the FBI committee. "They probably just dump the evidence in the drain."

Harmon was invited to the FBI committee because of his extensive work in helping create legal protocols that have made DNA the routine investigative tool it is today.

Now Harmon and others hope to translate the scientific and legal success DNA has had in court to the world of microbes.

Still, bringing DNA expertise to the world of microbes is daunting, according to Dr. Steven Schutzer of the University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey and his co-authors in the Public Library of Science piece.

"Because of the sheer number of potential pathogens that could be employed as a weapon, identifying genetic markers for microbes is a more daunting task than identifying human DNA," the authors concluded. "In the case of human identification, only one species is involved, and it is often possible to identify an individual person."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050930/ap_ ... MlJVRPUCUl
___

On the Net:

PLoS paper: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-02-12-schutzer.pdf

Alameda County District Attorney: http://www.acgov.org/da
Click to expand...
 
Human Genome to get U.S. govt anthrax drug deal

The plot thickens...

Human Genome to get U.S. govt anthrax drug deal
Mon Oct 3, 1:32 AM ET



Human Genome Sciences Inc. plans to announce a deal with the U.S. government on Monday to provide as many as 100,000 doses of an experimental anthrax drug, the Washington Post reported.

The Rockville, Maryland-based company will sell the government a third of an ounce of the drug for $1.8 million, an amount sufficient for government testers to compare the product with competitors, the paper said.

On Friday, U.S. officials awarded a similar contract to Winnipeg, Canada-based Cangene Corp. to supply its anthrax treatment product for a preliminary trial that could also lead to a larger order, the biotech firm said.

Cangene said its anthrax product, which is used to treat or prevent inhalation anthrax, had been picked for preliminary efficacy testing.

Under both contracts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has an option to buy between 10,000 and 100,000 doses of the products.

Anthrax is an acute and sometimes deadly infectious disease caused by spore-forming bacterium that can be used as a biological weapon.

Letters laced with anthrax killed five people in the weeks that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, and many people were treated with strong antibiotics in case they had been infected. The cases have still not been solved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051003/hl_ ... MlJVRPUCUl
Click to expand...
 
US: 75 CDC scientists possibly exposed to live anthrax after research lab accident

Around 75 scientists working for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at a lab in Atlanta, Georgia, may have accidentally been exposed to live anthrax.

The CDC have provided all potentially exposed staff with antibiotics and they are being carefully monitored for any signs of the disease, as the situation is investigated internally and by the FBI.

The possible exposure within the lab is not believed to have posed a risk to other CDC staff, family members, or the general public.

In a statement, the CDC said:

“Although the investigation continues, early reports show that one of its Roybal campus biosafety level 3 (BSL3) labs was preparing B. anthracis samples for research in other CDC labs at lower biosafety levels to yield new means of detecting dangerous pathogens in environmental samples. However, the lab used a procedure that did not adequately inactivate the samples.

“The potentially infectious samples were moved and used for experimentation in three CDC Roybal campus laboratories not equipped to handle live B. anthracis. Workers, believing the samples were inactivated, were not wearing adequate personal protective equipment while handling the material.

“Lab safety investigators also determined that, sometime between June 6 and June 13, procedures used in two of the three labs may have aerosolized the spores. Environmental sampling was done, lab and hallway areas were decontaminated and laboratories will be re-opened when safe to operate.”

http://descrier.co.uk/news/world/us-75- ... -accident/
Click to expand...
 
Four lab workers in the United States and up to 22 overseas have been put in post-exposure treatment, a defense official said, following the revelation the U.S. military inadvertently shipped liveanthrax samples in the past several days.

CNN learned on Wednesday a Maryland-based lab received the live samples, which prompted an across the board urgent review to see whether any other live anthrax has been shipped.

Officials are concerned because samples left over at the lab in Dugway, Utah, where the samples originated, were tested and determined to contain live agent.

The shipments, thought to be dead, were shipped under less rigorous conditions than the live agent protocol.

NBC News reported that the anthrax was sent via FedEx.

Company spokesman Jim McCluskey wouldn't directly confirm the report. ...

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/27/p...index.html?sr=twtsr052715anthrax10pstoryphoto
 
Far worse than the Whizzo Assortment's Anthrax Ripple. Back then, I think, it was only a sheep thing.
 
Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work has repeatedly said the scandal over the military's mistaken shipment of live anthrax spores around the nation and the world would get worse -- and he was right.

The number of labs that received live anthrax has more than doubled to 194 since Work and Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, released a report in July on the shipments of the deadly pathogen from the Army's Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah.

The number of states receiving live anthrax also more than doubled to include all 50 states and Washington, D.C., plus Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

The number of countries that received live anthrax went up from seven to nine -- Japan, United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, according to the Pentagon's updated accounting of the shipments through Sept. 1.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...stakenly-sent-live-anthrax-all-50-states.html
 
Whizzo Anthrax Ripple could be a good name for an ice cream.
 
1,500 reindeer dead, 40 humans hospitalized amid anthrax outbreak in Siberia

At least 40 people from nomadic communities in northern Siberia have been hospitalized amid an anthrax outbreak that scientists believe was caused by thawing reindeer carcasses.

Northern Siberia has been hit with a bout of weird weather, including a heatwave that has led to record-high temperatures. In the Yamal tundra, which sits above the Arctic Circle, temperatures soared to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the average of 77 degrees this time of the year. Scientists have linked the heatwave to climate change.

The warm temperatures caused the region's permafrost — a layer of permanently frozen subsurface soil — to thaw, unleashing the deadly bacteria. Scientists believe the melting unearthed the frozen carcass of a reindeer that died in the last anthrax outbreak in 1968.

Related: Reindeer populations are declining worldwide — and it's mostly our fault

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that more than 1,500 reindeer died from anthrax infections in the autonomous Yamalo-Nenets district. Governor Dmitry Kobylkin has declared a state of emergency and evacuated and quarantined the communities most at risk of infection, such as nomadic reindeer herders. ...

https://news.vice.com/article/reindeer-dead-humans-hospitalized-anthrax-outbreak-russia-siberia
 
A little off topic.

I live about five miles from the place which on the 28th October 1942, became the only location on the British mainland to have an anthrax bomb dropped on it.

it was decided at short notice to carry out a single replacement test at a different location, namely on the firm sand of the Burry Inlet. Two lines of sheep were placed downwind of the aiming mark, one at 100 yards and one at 300, with each line consisting of 30 animals spread at 10 yard intervals. The bomb was charged with 3 pounds 'of a 1.97% (nominal) aqueous suspension of anthrax spores'.​

http://www.llanellich.org.uk/files/319-anthrax

It was rumoured in the area for years apparently, but only officially confirmed in 1987.

There are still signs warning you of unexploded chemical and high explosive shells in the area. And I've come across a couple down there. And I forgot to mention that Frankie Howard was mixed up in it too.
 
ramonmercado said:
1,500 reindeer dead, 40 humans hospitalized amid anthrax outbreak in Siberia

At least 40 people from nomadic communities in northern Siberia have been hospitalized amid an anthrax outbreak that scientists believe was caused by thawing reindeer carcasses.
Click to expand...

I hope that this is the reason. Russia's recent involvement in the Middle East makes one think of the possibility of bio-terrorism.
 
oldrover said:
the only location on the British mainland to have an anthrax bomb dropped on it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that. I knew of Gruinard but this later test has not had much attention.

Those Llanelli Community Heritage files are full of interesting stuff! :)
 
JamesWhitehead said:
Thanks for posting that. I knew of Gruinard but this later test has not had much attention.

Those Llanelli Community Heritage files are full of interesting stuff! :)
Click to expand...

I must admit I haven't heard of that site before today. I am from, and tend to focus on, the Gower side. And am naturally suspicious of the goings on over there.
 
JamesWhitehead said:
Thanks for posting that. I knew of Gruinard but this later test has not had much attention.

Those Llanelli Community Heritage files are full of interesting stuff! :)
Click to expand...

I was thinking of Gruinard as well - mind you, there's not a huge number of people living within 5 miles of that site. "Remote" doesn't do it justice!
 
script>
ramonmercado said:
1,500 reindeer dead, 40 humans hospitalized amid anthrax outbreak in Siberia

At least 40 people from nomadic communities in northern Siberia have been hospitalized amid an anthrax outbreak that scientists believe was caused by thawing reindeer carcasses.

Northern Siberia has been hit with a bout of weird weather, including a heatwave that has led to record-high temperatures. In the Yamal tundra, which sits above the Arctic Circle, temperatures soared to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the average of 77 degrees this time of the year. Scientists have linked the heatwave to climate change.

The warm temperatures caused the region's permafrost — a layer of permanently frozen subsurface soil — to thaw, unleashing the deadly bacteria. Scientists believe the melting unearthed the frozen carcass of a reindeer that died in the last anthrax outbreak in 1968.

Related: Reindeer populations are declining worldwide — and it's mostly our fault

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that more than 1,500 reindeer died from anthrax infections in the autonomous Yamalo-Nenets district. Governor Dmitry Kobylkin has declared a state of emergency and evacuated and quarantined the communities most at risk of infection, such as nomadic reindeer herders. ...

https://news.vice.com/article/reindeer-dead-humans-hospitalized-anthrax-outbreak-russia-siberia
Click to expand...

To add some context to this situation, this tweet suggests that a medic appeared on local TV to discourage people from eating rat meat, given the increased infection risk. Think about that for a moment - people need to have a reason not to eat rat meat :eek::(

https://twitter.com/luckyfeodor/status/760210278319591424
 
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I don't know the culture, but I wonder if they eat some bits of the carcasses raw the way innuits do? They might still cook the rest?
 
The secret is using the right marinade.
 
Eeeek!

A Malaysian scientist who recruited terrorists for Islamic Stateand al-Qaeda and tried to help Osama bin Laden develop anthrax for use as a biological weapon was released from prison on Wednesday.

“Yazid Sufaat was released this morning from the Simpang Renggam prison in Johor and sent back to his home in Kuala Lumpur,” said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, head of Malaysian police’s Special Branch counterterrorism division. Sufaat’s release followed a decision by the Prevention of Terrorism Board and he would be required to wear an electronic monitoring device, added Ayob.

“He is only allowed to be in the vicinity of his home in Ampang [district] and must be inside his home from 8pm to 6am every day,” Ayob said.

He was released in 2010 but sent back to jail in 2013 for recruiting Islamic State members to fight in Syria. In 2017, he was again released, only to be rearrested shortly afterwards when it was discovered he had been recruiting fellow inmates for al-Qaeda while in jail.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3038662/osama-bin-ladens-anthrax-scientist-freed-malaysia
 
Released...why?
They're being a bit trusting with that monitoring device thing... he could simply instruct other people in the production of nasty stuff.
 

Four anthrax patients refuse treatment, leave hospital in Siberia​


MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. Four out of five patients infected with anthrax in the Tuva Region in southern Siberia have left without authorization a local hospital where they had been undergoing treatment, according to a statement by the regional Health Ministry on Tuesday.

"Four patients hospitalized with anthrax refused treatment at the [region’s] infectious diseases hospital and left the medical facility without authorization. One patient continues to receive [in-patient] treatment," the statement said. The regional branch of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s federal public health watchdog, was immediately informed of the situation.

https://tass.com/society/1648297

maximus otter
 
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