WELLINGTON: Anthrax spores have been found in a hut in Antarctica used by an English explorer a century ago and since visited by thousands of tourists, scientists and a British princess, a heritage group said on Wednesday.
The spores do not pose a risk to human health, but the hut at Cape Evans has been temporarily closed, government officials said.
"Thousands of people have passed through the historic huts since they were rediscovered in the late 1940s without any cases of confirmed anthrax," New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust director Nigel Watson said.
The traces of anthrax were found recently in a hut that housed ponies and mules used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott in 1912, he said.
Among recent visitors to the small wooden structure was Britain's Princess Anne, chairwoman of the British Antarctic Heritage Trust, in February.
Watson said there was no evidence of any men on Scott' expedition having suffered from anthrax.
Health Ministry spokesman Dr Douglas Lush said the anthrax may have been present in food taken to Antarctica to feed the Manchurian ponies and Hamalayan mules Scott used. Anthrax was endemic in Asia at the time.
"Spores... don't pose a threat to humans unless they are inhaled in large quantities or come in contact with open wounds," he said.
The fact the spores "may have survived the extreme cold conditions in Antarctica (is) not surprising," Waikato University biology professor Roberta Farrell said.
Anthrax does occur in nature and is frequently found on animal hides and in the wool of sheep. Anthrax has, from time to time, been referred to as "wool gatherer's disease."
It usually occurs in small amounts though and is not harmful. Arctic explorers frequently used animal hides and fur to survive so that is likely the source of the spores
The FBI is already on top of this one. So far, they've developed the following profile of the perpetrator of this terrorist attack:
Middle-aged white male who is nonconfrontational but holds grudges for a long time. Possibly suffering from bipolar (pun intended) disorder, sexual dysfunction, and a martyr complex. Probably a Republican with lots of winter weather gear.
