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Missing Lab Mice Infected With Plague

Posted by Zonk on from the who-wants-bubons-i-do-i-do dept.

Buford C Nuzzle-Chunks writes "PhysOrg is reporting that 'The FBI and New Jersey officials have started a hushed but intensive search for three missing lab mice reportedly infected with deadly strains of plague'. The Washington Post says it's not that big a deal, but I was dismayed at the PhysOrg article's quote from Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University microbiologist, about certain federal bio-terrorism labs: 'You have more security at a McDonald's than at some of these facilities.'"

26 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. All we need is... by NotFamous · · Score: 5, Funny

    Someone to build a better mousetrap!

    --
    Some settling may occur during posting.
    1. Re:All we need is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Pinky: 'What are we going to do tonight, Brain?'

      Brain: "What we always do, Pinky...try and take over the world!'

      Pinky: 'NARF!'

    2. Re:All we need is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Three plagued mice
      Three plagued mice
      See how they run
      See how they run
      They all run up to the ex-governors wife
      Who can't keep a man to save her life
      Did you ever see such a thing in your life
      As three plagued mice

  2. The British are going to help you... by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... just as soon as we capture the last of these rage infected monkeys.

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    1. Re:The British are going to help you... by bombadier_beetle · · Score: 5, Funny

      Please hurry. One of them got loose, came over to the States and became President.

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      If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
    2. Re:The British are going to help you... by operagost · · Score: 4, Funny

      Apparently, the others are high-user-id posters on Slashdot.

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      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    3. Re:The British are going to help you... by hesiod · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, Plague Rats were extremely dangerous until Tournament Rules limited you to only 4 in a deck...

  3. Have they checked the obvious? by codergeek42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they're "infected wqith a deadly plague," perhaps they simply died?

    1. Re:Have they checked the obvious? by The+Angry+Mick · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of the articles I read said that a scientist was speculating just that. They got out and probably died not too far from the lab.

      What I'm curious to know is, if they died and were subsequently consumed by either a larger animal (dog, cat, etc.) or smaller insects, would the plague be transferable to the consumer? In other words, could a roach eat the remains of the mouse, a rat eat the roach, and the whole plague start over yet again?

      --

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    2. Re:Have they checked the obvious? by Fishstick · · Score: 5, Informative

      IIRC, Plague's primary tranmission vector was fleas:

      The classic mode of transmission to humans is a fleabite. Alternately, broken skin serves as a portal when tissue or blood of an infected animal is handled (skinning or evisceration of infected animals). Competency of the flea to serve as vector for transmission of plague to humans depends on its willingness to feed on a human host and its tendency to regurgitate intestinal contents during a blood meal. Fleas from sylvatic rodents feed on humans only reluctantly. However, the Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) is an effective vector because of its tendency to regurgitate and to feed on nonrodent hosts. When the flea takes a blood meal from an infected rodent, stomach enzymes cause a clot to form, blocking the flea's proventricularis. At its next attempt to feed, unable to swallow due to the blockage, the flea regurgitates plague bacilli into the bite wound.

      http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1819.htm

      Not sure if you can catch/spread the plague by eating an infected corpse. Seems unlikely this would move through the food chain.

      --

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      Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.

    3. Re:Have they checked the obvious? by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Funny
      I know an old lady who swallowed a bison. She swallowed the bison to parse the sea. She swallowed the sea to drown the spider that wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll vi.

      --

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  4. well thats good by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    Given what they serve at McDonalds, thats probably a good thing. I'd rather take my chances with the mice.

  5. Easy Solution Then... by DaedalusLogic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just build a McDonald's at each of these facilities... Boom! You have your security, and the burger joint has a fresh supply of ingredients on hand.

  6. What's the big deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We're talking about New Jersey. I could understand being concerned if it was somewhere else, but New Jersey? This probably improves the environment and air quality there.

    1. Re:What's the big deal? by Lenins_beard · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey. Be nice. I have relatives incarcerated there.

  7. maybe... by Jumbo+Jimbo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I heard that they ran off with the farmer's wife, who cut off their tails with carving knife.

  8. Yot are we gonna do tonight, Brain? by wowbagger · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yot are we gonna do tonight, Brain? Try to take over the world?

    No, Pinky. We are going to try to find a pharmacy and cure this <hack> damn cough!

    --
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  9. Common in NM by glarvat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's nothing. The bubonic plague is actually relatively common (as plagues go) in New Mexico... Those mice are probably on a cross country trip to join their brethren.

  10. You don't know the half of it by ebrandsberg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How many labs were flooded during Katrina? How many of those were doing research of this type? What, you can't answer that? Point is, nobody knows WHAT people will be exposed to down there. Three rats with Plague is nothing compared with what could be unleashed.

    1. Re:You don't know the half of it by WillAdams · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, the CDC has already looked into this, running in at least one team of state troopers led by a scientist with bolt cutters to destroy all of the hazardous samples &c. (all possible scientific value was lost when the power failed allowing samples to thaw &c.)

      http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050914/ap_on_he_me/ka trina_lost_research

      Apparently all other sites were relatively undamaged and were still secure.

      William

      --
      Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
  11. McDonalds security is no laughing matter by Chairboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    McDonalds security is no laughing matter.

    Consider, for example, the international fugitive known as the "Hamburglar".

  12. Re:Deadly? by allism · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not as dangerous as you might think - yersinia pestis has not been eradicated by any means. There are still problems with it in rodent populations - for instance, Boulder County, CO has had a problem with it just this summer in the groundhog population.

    The route of transmission to humans is

    rodent > flea > human

    (if it turns into pneumonia in a human it can be passed human to human, otherwise not).

    Since fleas aren't nearly the problem they were in the middle ages, and we don't have travelers trekking on foot (and picking up fleas) through areas that have a high incidence of yersinia pestis in the rodent population, it just doesn't spread as quickly as it used to. There still end up being a few cases of bubonic plague every year in the US, but it doesn't have the opportunity to spread the way it used to.

    --
    Denver Isuzu Suzuki
  13. The really scarey part.... by evenprime · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The really scarey part is that they had to interview the staff and give them lie detector tests to see if anyone had liberate^H^H^H^H^Hstolen the mice....

    I don't get those PETA/ALF types....

    --

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    I think that goes for OS's too
  14. Plague by LordMyren · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One of my neighbors got the plague. He's like one of the three people on the planet that somehow managed to catch the bubonic plague that year. What shitty luck.

    Evidently the good news for him is that he's now immune.

    1. Re:Plague by EvilMidnightBomber · · Score: 4, Funny

      Evidently the good news for him is that he's now immune

      Being dead will do that for you

  15. It does need incubation... by jpellino · · Score: 4, Informative

    We worked with this about 20 years ago - Pasteurella sp., though this species is similar. It needs incubation at body temperature, outside of that it doesn't do well - IIRC cultures were dead in less than a day out of their ranges, but we autoclaved everything jsut for good measure. Plus we signed a big piece of paper from NIH saying we'd take full responsibility for it all. Some good news is that not all strains are human pathogens. More good news is it doesn't form spores, so dead bacteria is dead bacteria. Plus it responds well to antibiotics. What we call "plague" bacteria are very common in livestock - ag people call it "shipping fever" because it's usually not a problem until you stuff lots of animals in a stock trailer or car and let them breath, scratch and bite each other for a week, and you can have high mortality on arrival. The wild strains of some of these are nearly ubiquitous in rabbits, and more common than you'd think in household and farm animals.

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