There was no reason to send it to USAMRIID.
Those folks who were into that pathogen back then knew each other. Even Martin Hugh-Jones said it was traded back and forth like baseball cards.
I wonder if all land grant colleges had received the same request letter from Dr. Knudsen? Did he only send that letter to “collectors”. ISU vet school was a “collection” site.
Take pennies. How many pennies do you need in your collection?
A collection is a representative of each kind. So you only need three pennies from an average year. A plain, a D and an S. One from each of the mints. It would follow that you need three from each year.
A collection of anthrax would be a sample of each known strain.
Don’t bother to tell me what you think they thought you thought.
Tell me what the Postal Inspector JR said.
Did he or did he not say it was sent to Ames before being routed to Ft. Detrick.
Did he or did he not say Iowa (USDA) had it.
And then after your answer, I’ll call him at the number he provided you on his card for any follow-up questions.
As for why Texas would send it, of course there was a reason. Knudson asked for it. The vet had noted its special virulence at the time with 30 cows being fine in the morning and then dead later that day.
When shipped, two vials were sent. There would be no cause to send it to one and also to the other. The two vials were in the same package.
But not getting back to the question, did Postal Inspector JR say that (1) it was routed through Iowa, and (2) that Iowa had it.