AR-News: Lab animals die from heat

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From:primfocus at waste.org

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/02/13/build/state/50-animals.inc

Lab animals die from heat
By JENNIFER McKEE
Gazette State Bureau

HELENA - Thirteen monkeys and dozens of hamsters died over the weekend at
Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton after they were housed in 100-degree
heat for several hours.

All the animals died from excessive heat after a heater malfunctioned,
although many other animals in the room with them were unharmed, said
Marshall Bloom, associate director of the labs.

All of the animals were involved in research on chronic wasting disease and
other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies - the family of
brain-wasting diseases that include mad cow disease and a similar human
ailment.

The monkeys had been inoculated with chronic wasting disease to see if
primates can get the deer and elk disease.

The animals were housed in the lab's 10,000-square-foot animal research
wing. The temperature in that part of the lab is not supposed to go above 78
degrees or fall below 72 degrees. Part of the heating system involves
heating air over hot coils. If the air leaving the coils is too hot, an
alarm will sound, Bloom said.

Sometime after 4 p.m. Saturday, the computer that controls the coil heat
system "locked up," Bloom said, forcing air to circulate over the coils and
become very hot.

The hot air was then piped into the animal wing, where parts of the area
reached 100 degrees.

An alarm sounded, but it was not designed to contact the lab's 24-hour
security desk, Bloom said, and by then, the technician who cares for the
animals had gone home for the day.

The technician found the dead animals the next morning at 8 a.m.

The heating system has been repaired and the alarm has been changed to alert
24-hour security workers if there is a change in temperature. The lab is
also in the process of checking every alarm in the facility to make sure it
rings to the security desk.

Lab officials have also contacted the National Institutes of Health in
Bethesda, Md., which oversees the lab, as well as the lab's Animal Care and
Use Committee, which includes members of the public.

Bloom said the accident would not jeopardize the lab's ability to work with
animals in the future, and he said the lab has a long, accident-free history
of working with animals.

The monkeys which died over the weekend have been autopsied and their brains
prepared so scientists can see if they contracted disease.

All the animals have since been incinerated so that any infectious chronic
wasting particles have been inactivated, Bloom said.



the wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. he is in front of it - axel munthe

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."      Margaret Mead
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