Missing Mice Prompt Plague Scare

Three mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague apparently disappeared from a laboratory about two weeks ago, and authorities launched a search though health experts said there was scant public risk.

The mice were unaccounted-for at the Public Health Research Institute, which is on the campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and conducts bioterrorism research for the federal government.

Federal official said the mice may never be accounted for. Among other things, the rodents may have been stolen, eaten by other lab animals or just misplaced in a paperwork error. Eaten is considered most likely.

The mice were injected as part of an inoculation and vaccination experiment, investigators said.

If the mice got outside the lab, they would have already died from the disease, state Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs said.

The possibility of theft prompted the institute to interrogate two dozen of its employees and conduct lie detector tests, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Thursday.

The FBI said it was investigating. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also investigating, the newspaper reported.

The FBI, meanwhile, has told the institute to upgrade its video cameras and other security measures.

"A person made a mistake, and it was a big mistake," PHRI director and chief scientist David Perlin told the Star-Ledger.

Officials say the institute had a single security guard and a low-quality video monitoring system that was of limited use.

Former UMDNJ public safety director Anthony Shelton said security was always an issue at PHRI, which is not part of the school and only a tenant.

"It was kind of a hodgepodge in that they had a different contractor install the security system there (at PHRI) that was not compatible with our system (UMDNJ). Therefore we could not monitor it," Shelton said.

Health officials say 10 to 20 people in the United States contract plague each year, usually through infected fleas or rodents. It can be treated with antibiotics, but about one in seven U.S. cases is fatal. Bubonic plague is not contagious, but left untreated it can transform into pneumonic plague, which can be spread from person to person.

The incident is focusing attention on the dozens of other bio-terrorism research facilities springing up across the country. Bio-defense labs funded by the Department of Defense have stricter security guidelines than those funded by the National Institutes of Health, such as PHRI.