Texas A&M Infectious Disease Research Suspended

The Center for Disease Control has indefinitely suspended all federally-funded research on certain infectious diseases at Texas A&M University. This is because researchers failed to report laboratory exposure of researchers to two "select agents".

In a memo sent to the university Saturday, the CDC questions whether A&M meets biosafety standards and has an appropriate security plan. The memo says CDC officials plan to revisit the campus this month, and it demands dozens of records and interviews with key researchers.

The letter warns that the university could permanently lose the authority to work with select agents if researchers don't follow federal guidelines.

Since the attacks of 9/11, the anthrax mailings and the formation of the Dept. of Homeland Security research, in the USA, on certain so-called "select agents" has been very closely controlled. In addition to "select agents" the NIH has a list of pathogens categorized as A, B, and C according to their potential risk to national security.

The pathogens in question, are bacteria: Coxiella burnetii (Cat. A) and Brucella (Cat. B).

A&M researchers have been studying vaccines for Brucella and Q fever, both of which are considered "terror agents" that could be used in biological warfare.

The Q fever case came to light after routine blood tests showed that three lab workers had elevated levels of certain antibodies, indicating they'd been exposed to the agent. None of the researchers fell ill.

CDC officials say they never received documentation on the Q fever exposure. But university officials say that they contacted the CDC on the exposures and that the agency told them it wasn't serious enough to warrant a formal report. The university has since changed its policy to require reporting of exposures, even when there's no evidence of infection.

The Brucella infection occurred when a female lab worker climbed into a chamber used to expose mice to the agent in an attempt to disinfect it. She was home sick for several weeks before she was diagnosed with brucellosis, and she had to take two months' worth of antibiotics to fully recover.

This is going to really hurt Texas A & M University because they are seeking to become the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility which the Dept. of Homeland Security will award in 2008.