The University of Wisconsin-Madison had ordered a veterinary researcher to stay out of a lab for five years after he performed research on a potential bioterrorism agent without receiving proper approval.
Professor Gary Splitter failed to receive authorization from local or federal authorities before his laboratory no later than 2007 produced antibiotic-resistant variants of brucellosis and tested them on mice. The work was a "major action violation," according to the National Institutes of Health, and earned the university a $40,000 penalty.
Brucellosis is a disease that generally infects livestock or other animals but can spread to humans through several means, including consumption of milk contaminated with the bacteria. Symptoms include fever, headache and back pain and the disease can produce "severe infections" of the central nervous system or heart lining, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease is not among the agents most likely to be used in an act of bioterrorism, "in part because it results in a high morbidity, but low mortality," according to a fact sheet from Saint Louis University. "However, it remains a threat because the disease process is long and incapacitating."
An antibiotic-resistant version of the disease could be harder to treat than a more standard form, according to the newspaper.
One laboratory staffer was infected with the disease, but it was not clear if that was linked to the strain involved in Splitter's work. The staffer apparently suffered no permanent effects.
"These are extremely dangerous compounds," according to university Provost Paul DeLuca. "They are very highly regulated and we want to be in full compliance with federal laws."
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100513_7654.php
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