Newark Bioterror Research Lab Loses Track of 3 Mice; Officials Say Health Risk Minimal

New Jersey state health officials say the threat to public health is “slim to none” after three laboratory mice infected with Yersinia pestis bacteria were missing and unaccounted for at a Public Health Research Institute laboratory on the campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, according to a report Thursday in The Star-Ledger newspaper of Newark, NJ.

The mice disappeared from a Biosafety Level 3 containment lab, the newspaper reported. David Perlin, the scientific director of the Public Health Research Institute, said the animals' disappearance was apparently due to a breach of animal-handling protocol by a technician and said investigators and scientists believe the missing mice had been eaten by the others in the cages, but that is not ascertainable. The FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated.

The incident points out the problematic nature of having such laboratories in urban centers. The University of Texas in August broke ground on a Level 4 facility but similar effort by Boston University [see New Biology Economy, June 16], which plans to locate a $130 million lab in the city's South End, has become a political hot potato.

Yesterday, The Boston Globe newspaper reported that Michael Flaherty, Boston's city council president, had withdrawn his support for the proposed facility, saying the city is unprepared to deal with an accident at the facility. He said his opinion was formed in the aftermath of government reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The facility still has the support of Boston's mayor, The Globe said.

The Washington Business Journal earlier this week reported that George Mason University has received a $25 million NIH grant to create a 83,000 square foot Level 3 lab.

Earlier this month, the University of Hawaii also won a $25 million grant to create a Level 3 facility. This has met with some public acrimony, acccording to a report in the Honolulu Star Bulletin newspaper.

Meantime, the future of the Department of Homeland Security's Level 3 Plum Island agriculture research facility off eastern Long Island is under question. The Long Island newspaper Newsday recently published an editorial supporting the construction of a Level 4 facility in New York, but suggested it might best be built away from “congested population centers.”