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The Scientist: NewsBlog:
Pathogen lab lost infected mice
[Entry posted at 10th February 2009 09:48 PM GMT]
| A New Jersey infectious disease lab seems to be plagued with an inability to keep track of research mice infected with dangerous pathogens.
The facility, part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, seems to have misplaced two frozen carcasses of mice infected with bubonic plague last December, the New Jersey Star Ledger reported this weekend. According to the facility, the Public Health Research Institute, the bag containing the two dead mice probably stuck to another bag of biomaterials in the freezer heading for incineration, and was burned.
The Public Health Research Institute is a biosafety level 3 lab that studies Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, and other pathogens. After the infected carcasses were discovered to be missing, the institute notified federal authorities immediately, and according to the FBI, the dead animals do not pose a public health threat. Even so, the incident underscores the kinds of human errors that can arise in working with infectious pathogens.
In 2005, the same institute came under the spotlight for accidentally releasing two live plague-infected mice.
Related stories:Plague in New Jersey?
[17th September 2005]$1 million fine for biosafety snafus
[20th February 2008]The biosafety mess
[31st January 2005]
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Rating: 3.00/5 (13 votes )
Alarming! by Ruth Rosin
[Comment posted 2009-02-12 17:34:17]
The issue is not at all whether the infected mice already lost pose a danger, but that a lab of this type must have safety procedures that preclude the loss of any infected mice, ever.
We should be alarmed by romel lalats
[Comment posted 2009-02-11 21:19:19]
The lab is a level 3, and it means that it handles lots of exotic (really dangerous) stuff...losing a couple of mice may seem such a small thing but all the world's viruses and bacteria are way, way smaller...it's not really about the mice, it's about the flaw in safety mechanisms in high-risk lab
The headline is alarmist. by Ellen Hunt
[Comment posted 2009-02-11 14:40:10]
Plague is endemic in north American wildlife. One or two mice more doesn't matter in the least, alive or dead.
LINK
Once in a while someone dies of it, latest was a pathologist veterinarian who did a field necropsy on a dead mountain lion.
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