Is Newark the Next New Orleans???

Lab loses track of three mice that had plague

As FBI probes Newark mystery, officials say risk to public safety is small

Thursday, September 15, 2005
BY JOSH MARGOLIN AND TED SHERMANStar-Ledger Staff

Three lab mice carrying deadly strains of plague have turned up missing from separate cages at a bioterror research facility in Newark, sparking a hushed, intensive investigation by federal and state authorities.

Officials said the animals could have been stolen from the center or simply misplaced in a colossal accounting error at one of the top-level bio-containment labs in the state.
The incident occurred more than two weeks ago and was confirmed only yesterday after questions were raised by The Star-Ledger.

The research lab is located on the campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. It is run by the Public Health Research Institute, a leading center for research on infectious diseases, now participating in a six-year federal bio-defense project to find new vaccinations for the plague -- which federal officials fear could be used as a biological weapon.
UMDNJ has responsibility for the security of the building.

At least two dozen employees and researchers at the lab have been interrogated and, in some cases, subjected to lie detector tests. However, the disease-carrying lab mice may never be accounted for, federal officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also investigating.

"The FBI has expended substantial resources and put many agents into this investigation to satisfy -- among other things -- the most compelling question of whether public safety is at risk," said Special Agent Steve Siegel, a bureau spokesman.

He said the investigation was continuing. The agents on the case are members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and experts in biological agents that can be turned into weapons of mass destruction.

Although the FBI typically refuses to comment on open investigations, Siegel said the bureau took the unusual step of issuing a statement because of the "compelling public safety issue here" in the case.

"Right now, we are as satisfied as we can be that there is no public safety risk," Siegel stated.

State Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs said mice infected with plague die "very fast," so "the risk to the public ... is probably slim to none. We didn't think -- nor did the CDC think -- there was any public health threat."

Jacobs did acknowledge that the incident seemed to be the result of "internal sloppiness in the management of that lab."

Infectious-disease experts agreed that if the mice did escape the confines of the lab, the public health risk was likely minimal. However, they called the episode at UMDNJ's International Center for Public Health at University Heights Science Park very troubling -- raising serious issues of security and control at the lab.

The lab is a facility of the Public Health Research Institute, a separate entity that leases space from UMDNJ but is in discussions to become an operating division of the university.
In a statement released late yesterday, UMDNJ said: "The FBI has coordinated the investigation of the PHRI incident and UMDNJ has fully cooperated with their investigation."

While UMDNJ did not operate the lab, the investigation was more unwelcome news for a university that has had its reputation tattered in recent months by the disclosure of millions of dollars in financial abuses and no-bid contracts to politically connected firms.
Its administrative offices were also recently hit with a series of unsolved break-ins -- apparently tied to documents subpoenaed by federal investigators.

The lab where the mice disappeared is known as a Biosafety Level 3 containment lab, which works with diseases that are lethal or can cause serious health problems, including bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, West Nile virus and typhoid fever. The number of research labs has been expanding in response to the Bush administration's funding for bio-defense research.

Investigators said the lab mice were injected as part of an inoculation and vaccination experiment with the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The bacterium causes bubonic and other forms of plague -- an infectious disease which has claimed more than 30 million lives through history and even today sparks fear and panic around the world at the very mention of its name.
"It's a bad disease," noted John G. Bartlett, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

With modern antibiotics, plague can be treated if quickly diagnosed and is not the scourge that wiped out a third of Europe during the years of the Black Death in the 14th century, but it remains a deadly killer.

"Once it starts, it's awful," said Bartlett, recalling a case of bubonic plague three years ago in New York City involving a tourist from New Mexico. Thought to have been infected by fleas while hiking near Santa Fe, where plague is still not uncommon, the 53-year-old man began hemorrhaging and suffered an infection that shut down his kidneys and lungs. Doctors were forced to amputate his legs.

Bartlett said if the mice escaped, they probably were dead by now and should not be the cause of great concern. "What people should worry about is that plague is an agent of bio-terrorism," he suggested.

According to David Perlin, the scientific director of the Public Health Research Institute, the mice were part of a group of 24 animals injected with the plague bacterium Aug. 18. The brownish-gray mice, about the size of mice one might find in houses or buildings, were specially bred to be lab animals -- meaning they have almost identical genetic makeups so results can be compared from mouse to mouse.

The trials involved eight mice in each of three cages. One group was given a known and effective vaccine against the plague. A second was given a test vaccine. The third received no vaccine.

Three days later, the mice in two of the cages were all dead. The carcasses were bagged and frozen without being counted. Their cages were sterilized and the bedding and other materials inside were incinerated, according to Perlin.

In the third cage, the eight mice that had received the proven vaccine were still alive and accounted for on Aug. 25.

But four days later, on Aug. 29, just seven were found in the cage, and researchers went back to the frozen carcasses, only to find just seven in each set. They immediately called the CDC. Then the FBI was called.

Perlin placed the blame for the incident on an animal care handler.

'It was sort of basic animal care; Animal Care 101. The person didn't follow the basic standard protocol," Perlin remarked. "The individual is not working in the facility right now."

Perlin said investigators and scientists believe the missing mice had been eaten by the others in the cages, but that no one will ever know because the handler sterilized the cages and incinerated the contents before probing through all the bedding and waste in the cage to determine that there were no mouse remains.

Richard H. Ebright, a Rutgers University microbiologist and a critic of the government's rapid expansion of bio-terrorism labs, said whatever the ultimate disposition of the animals, the incident raises red flags.

"There is a modest public health risk if they escaped, but the more important issue is that of control and security of the facility," he said.

He noted there has been a series of serious incidents across the country involving accidental human infections at several of the labs working with agents like anthrax and plague. At the same time, he said, federal guidelines call for only minimal security -- a lock on the lab door and a lock on the sample container and cage.

"You have more security at a McDonald's than at some of these facilities," Ebright said.

Josh Margolin may be reached at jmargolin@starledger.com or (609) 989-0267. Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@starledger.com or (973) 392-4278.