Mice infected with Bubonic Plague Missing from Newark Lab

[Modem Butterfly]

http://www.wnbc.com/health/4976886/detail.html

NEWARK, N.J. -- Authorities are searching for three mice infected with bubonic plague that disappeared from a research laboratory about two weeks ago.

SNIP

The mice went missing from the lab of the Public Health Research Institute, which is located on the UMDNJ campus and conducts bioterrorism research for the federal government.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI are investigating, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported in Thursday's newspapers. The rodents may have been eaten by other laboratory animals, although the possibility that they have been stolen has prompted the institute to interrogate two dozen of its employees and conduct some lie detector tests, the newspaper said.

SNIP

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

[Coexist]

1. Please say this is a joke.

Please.

[Modem Butterfly]

2. Sorry

Once again, kids, DO NOT EVER PICK UP A DEAD RODENT WITHOUT PROTECTION! EVER! Even if it's cute! Even if it's yours!

[catnhatnh]

3. Unless of course....

...they were stolen for just what we fear,in which case a farm with thousands of plague infected mice is somewhere in the metro New York area...Now back to our coverage of Natalie Hollingsworth, already in progress...Greta?

[Modem Butterfly]

6. It's not the mice so much as the fleas....

And those little buggers can go anywhere...

[Brother Buzz]

8. Cats are a problem, too

How do people get plague?

•By the bites of infected fleas
•By direct contact with the tissues or body fluids of a plague-infected animal
•By inhaling infectious airborne droplets from persons or animals, especially cats, with plague pneumonia
•By laboratory exposure to plague bacteria

[Southpaw Bookworm]

18. And the mosquitos

That bite the rats, and then bite humans.

[Modem Butterfly]

19. I don't think mosquitos carry the plague

They do carry other nasties though, like malaria and dengue fever...

[SillyGoose]

4. OMG. This is terrifying. Hope they do a follow-up on the results of

the investigation.

[catnhatnh]

9. Right...But..

...how do you prove that they died or were eaten....it's all trying to prove a negative....if they've hosed it our first hint will be an epidemic...till then they can tell any happy little fairy tale that covers their asses...and IF it hits well, let's not play the blame game...

[Demonaut]

5. don't worry, we've lived with bubonic in Colorado for years, prairie dogs

carry it but very few transmissions occur to humans and very very few have died of it, beware of pneumonic plague.....http://www.rmad.org/pdogplague.html

[catnhatnh]

10. Yep...

but I'm betting the amount of human/prarie dog contact is limited by the fact that plague infected prarie dogs seldom infest houses of the sparsely settled prarie...in New York the story WOULD be different...

[Demonaut]

11. I have a prairie dog colony not half a mile from my house, in suburbia

I can tell you've never lived in CO, any tract of undeveloped land and sometimes even developed land can and usually will become a dog colony.

[Zynx]

16. Pneumonic Plague is the nastier one by far.

[troubleinwinter]

20. It has been in Calif. for quite some time, too...

among wild squirrels, rats and mice (fleas).

Caution handling dead animals.

Yes, it's generally treatable.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Nice. Hope they were flea resistant

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[Ready4Change]

12. Hope they didn't hitch a ride to NOLA.

Just saying, is all.

[patcox2]

13. Relax, you sound as scared as the government wants you to be.

Plague is fairly common, not particularly infectious in modern society, and nothing really at alll to worry about. There are probably some spores in the drip tray under your refridgerator.

There are a dozen or so naturally occurring cases in the US every year, maybe more, my memory is hazy, mostly in the southwest, they never turn into outbreaks.

Most so-called WMDs are just bogeymen the government uses to convince you to give up your rights. Don't fall for it.

[Modem Butterfly]

15. Is this directed to the author of the article or to me?

Because my words aren't actually in the post you're responding to...

[Zynx]

14. It's actually not that big of a deal.

It's much harder to spread than you would think given popular misconceptions about it.

[Lethe]

17. cant the plague be cured by antibiotics? nt

[Zynx]

21. Very easily. It doesn't have resistances at all because it's so rare.

Bacteria only get resistant when exposed to antibiotics that fail to kill all of them. As bubonic plague is rarely treated - because it rarely occurs in nations that have antibiotics - it has no defense against even the basics.

It's not a threat.

[Guaranteed]

22. All kind of rodents- squirrels, chipmunks, rats- have the plague.

It's a lot more common than people realize.

That's why it's important not to handle them in the wild.