Officials Finish Sweep of Federal Labs, Find Handful of Misplaced Microbes

December 16, 2014

(Washington Post) – Investigators poring through thousands of government labs turned up another two dozen potentially dangerous biological materials that were not properly accounted for, including the toxin ricin and a deadly form of avian flu, during a far-reaching inventory this fall, according to documents released Tuesday. The findings are part of an unprecedented accounting of federal labs that began after long-forgotten vials containing smallpox were found last summer at a Food and Drug Administration lab on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.