2 Mice Carrying Plague Disappear From New Jersey Lab, FBI Says No Public Health Risk

Yea, this makes me feel so much better because the FBI says nothing is wrong.

From the AP:

TRENTON, N.J. — The frozen remains of two mice injected with the organism that causes plague have not been accounted for seven weeks after being discovered missing at a University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey facility in Newark, the university said Friday.

The FBI investigated and determined there was no risk to public health or any indication of the terrorist link.

It wasn't the first time plague-infected mice have disappeared from the New Jersey facility. Four years ago, in September 2005, three live mice infected with bubonic plague bacteria disappeared from various cages. Officials later said they believed the rodents had died.

UMDNJ's Public Health Research Institute issued a four-paragraph statement about the December incident late Friday saying it believes the red hazardous waste bag containing the dead mice was sterilized and incinerated along with another bag.

"Although the mice in the missing bag were used in vaccine experiments involving the bacteria Yersinia pestis, the organism that causes plague, UMDNJ has no reason to believe that this situation poses a risk to the safety or health of UMDNJ staff or the community at large," the university said in its prepared statement.

Can we all hold hands and sing "Kumbya"now.

Bryan Travers, a spokesman for the FBI office in Newark, told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the FBI determined there was "no nexus to terrorism or risk to public health."

Why in the name of all things holy are we still messing with the Plague? Don't we know all we need to know about this deadly disease? And just as an aside, your tax payer dollars probably paid for the grant that keeps this research going.

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