Pentagon: More than 50 labs may have received live anthrax

The Pentagon on Wednesday announced that 51 labs in 17 states, Washington, D.C., and three countries have received potentially live samples of anthrax from a military lab in Utah. 

“We expect this number may rise,” said Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work at a Pentagon briefing. “We will update these numbers daily until all the investigation is complete.” 

{mosads}The states with labs that have received suspected samples include: California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina, as well as the District of Columbia. 

So far, labs in three foreign countries, Korea, Australia and Canada, have also received suspect samples.  

Work added that there have been no confirmed or suspected cases of anthrax infection among any workers in any of the labs that have received samples over the past 10 years. 

The Pentagon announced last Wednesday that an Army lab at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah accidentally sent samples of potentially live anthrax to nine laboratories in nine states. 

The samples were sent out for testing, training and research, and were supposed to be inactivated, or dead, samples of anthrax.