The lab at which personnel have been exposed to the causative agents of brucellosis and Q fever has been banned from working with select agents by the CDC. The exposures were not reported to the public until the Sunshine Project requested information on accidents involving bioweapon agents.
The investigations and restriction came in the midst of A&M’s bid for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, a homeland security facility that researches high-consequence biological threats, such as brucella and Q fever.
The Sunshine Project expects the CDC investigation to nix the bid, but naturally the university paints a rosier picture.
UPDATE: New Scientist – “…20,000 people at 400 sites around the US working with putative bioweapons germs…”
UPDATE: Guess who didn’t make the DHS short list for the new lab? It’s not really a surprise, is it?
Filed under: biological weapons, health, homeland security, infectious disease
It’s actually all select agent work. From perusing federal grants, that seems to include some anthrax and some shiga / shiga-like toxin work. A&M officials say 4-5 labs where shut down. Since they have a (human) health science center and a vet school, one might reasonably presume that there’s more sitting around in the freezers.
If there are now two admitted coverups, I wonder how many other errors are still hidden away? We are lucky that the two incidents did not spread anywhere! Hopefully, this lab will reopen soon and run the right way.
Did any of the accidents happen because of the age of the infrastructure? Brucella should require BSL3 like tuberculosis shouldn’t it?
No, sloppy protocols and human error appear to be the culprits. Brucella when cultured requires BSL-3.
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