The scientists concluded that spores used in the mailings were not weaponized or coated with a special substance to make them more easily inhaled. The germs were traced back to a single flask at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), which exhibited four significant mutations that amounted to a genetic fingerprint.So, the question is, With all this Ame strain bacteria existing in those various labs, how likely is it that the ISU anthrax would turn out to contain those same four mutants?Among the most persuasive pieces of evidence was the genetic analysis that the FBI says conclusively linked the letters to spores in Ivins's lab. Ivins possessed a flask of anthrax bacteria unlike any other -- a blend of spores from dozens of batches made in Army labs at Fort Detrick and at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Ivins's concoction -- labeled RMR-1029 -- was a mix of normal anthrax cells and four mutated varieties, or genetic oddballs.
The bacteria used in the attacks contained precisely the same mix of normal and mutated cells, the officials said. Of more than 1,000 samples of anthrax bacteria collected by the FBI in the years after the attacks, only eight contained the same four genetic mutants. All eight could be directly traced to the flask in Ivins's lab, the officials said.
While the FBI has acknowledged that more than 100 people could have had either access to Ivins's flask or samples of material from it, investigators say they eliminated all others as suspects.
Bureau scientists also found that Ivins had access to all the tools and skills needed to make the fine powder mailed to Senate offices in September 2001. Despite initial suspicions that the powder was weaponized, the process used to make the powder was relatively simple. FBI scientists easily reproduced it with gear that Ivins regularly used.
It is much more likely that there were two types, normal genotype 62 and the mutant with the fluted edges. Ivins could have grown some out and then cherry picked one or the other to send in as his first sample. Especially if they can be distinguished morphologically on a streak plate.
If there were four markers on one genetic mutant, which I think is the case, but not so stated in your post, it could have some via the 1990 package. If there are 5 different kinds then not.
In any case, one needs to eliminate ISU as the source before any conclusion can be made.
If you have 13 lime green Chevy sedans and one of them robs a drive through bank, leaving some lime green Chevy paint on the side of the bank, and you can find only 12 that are unmarked, and the owner of the 13th one takes it to the crusher the next day......you draw your own conclusions.
I'm sticking to my guns and they are loaded.