In the wake of news that a U.S. Army lab has mistakenly shipping live anthrax for years, FedEx has announced that it will no longer be delivering packages containing bioterror pathogens from research labs.
In a letter sent to federal regulators, FedEx said that it will stop accepting "select agents" for shipping, saying safety concerns over the military's mishap was a deciding factor as the shipping company's decision was made in response to news that live anthrax has been shipped unknowingly by one of the U.S. Army's labs.
FedEx, however, has not disclosed if it had handled one of the anthrax shipments, citing confidentiality policies. An internal investigation has been carried out by the company though and have found that its network is safe and poses no risks to employees or its customers.
FedEx's refusal to transport specimens drew concerns from major laboratories who rely on the company to send and receive critical samples necessary for developing treatments and diagnosing diseases. Some are worried that working with another courier will further delay their already-tight schedules for studies.
Many of the pathogens used for researching infectious disease come from other parts of the globe. It was easy sending samples back and forth research labs because FedEx had the capabilities to transport pathogens in a timely manner. And when an outbreak is in place, time will definitely be of the essence.
"If this were to happen now, most public health labs could not ship specimens overnight to CDC and the national public health response would be disrupted and delayed," explained Eric Blank, from the Association of Public Health Laboratories.
Select agents are 65 types of toxins, bacteria and viruses that can be potentially turned into bioweapons so they are highly regulated. Anthrax is one of them, as well as Ebola and a number of pathogens responsible for botulism and plague. For a research lab to have access to select agents, it must be part of the Federal Select Agent Program, a project jointly managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since 2003, around 4,250 shipments of select agents have been carried out. Commercial carriers are the typical choice for shipping specimens but now that FedEx has bowed out, only World Carrier is continuing to accept select-agent shipments. Both UPS and the U.S. Postal Service have said that they have no plans of accepting shipments of select agents.
