Local firm wins contract to combat anthrax

By ELLEN READ

Revolutionary air-filtering cartridges to be manufactured in New Zealand will join the fight against anthrax in the United States.

Auckland company Microgenix, a joint venture between Waste Technology in Auckland and Microgenix of the UK, has won the cartridge manufacturing and distribution rights for Australasia, Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Tenders are being sought from around the country for engineers to produce the units.

The units contain a liquid which dries and coats the inside of the cartridge with a spiked form that destroys germ spores. A back-up chamber contains an ultra-violet light, which alters the DNA of any surviving spores or cells.

The company's executive chairman, Aucklander Winston McDonald, has just returned from the UK, where the deal was arranged.

He said the UK company met the United States Postal Service this week to discuss installing the cartridges in its air-conditioning units.

A report from the UK Centre for Chemical and Biological Defence Research said the units were very effective, Mr McDonald said.

"In the most extreme tests they simulated, eight to ten million anthrax spores were passed through the cartridge and were destroyed."

Principals of the UK firm - which began production three months ago and has already exceeded its two-year order target - will visit New Zealand next week to finalise arrangements for the local company.

Mr McDonald, who has detailed plans for the cartridges ready for the start of production, said engineer interviews would be completed by then.

Local production would probably begin early in the new year.