Oklahoma ties: Guidelines followed here, officials say

By Jeff Raymond

Published: October 2, 2007

Oklahoma research institutions that work with potentially dangerous bacteria say they follow federal guidelines and do not put students, scientists or the community at risk.

"The University of Oklahoma complies with federal and state requirements related to research safety. Pursuant to those requirements, OU maintains laboratory safety manuals, which address general safety guidelines for OU researchers,” University of Oklahoma spokeswoman Catherine Bishop said in an e-mail. "Researchers also follow more specific safety protocols and policies related to specific research projects. Those safety procedures and policies are systematically reviewed and monitored by various university oversight committees.”

She was unable to specify which organisms OU and University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center researchers used in their labs.

Oklahoma State University spokesman Gary Shutt said in an e-mail message that the university properly reported a missing dead mouse that was later found to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"That is not true,” he wrote about suggestions the incident was unreported. "That is the reason people know about it.”

The mouse had been injected with bacteria that cause joint pain, weakness, lymph node swelling and pneumonia, according to The Associated Press.

Shutt declined to name the organisms used at OSU, citing safety guidelines, but said researchers work with a "wide variety” of organisms, most of which either are not associated with illness in healthy adults or are associated with human disease but have preventive or therapeutic measures available.

"Only a fraction of OSU research involves high-security organisms,” he said.

Researchers adhere to federal regulations and guidelines, he said, and lab inspections are routine. Additionally, he said, certain researchers undergo "substantial” training, and OSU offers safety and compliance training continuously.

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation spokesman Adam Cohen said the research institution works with yeast, molds, bacteria, roundworms, mice and rats. It also has a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the bacterium that causes anthrax.

"The form of anthrax used in this project, known as the Sterne strain, is not harmful to humans,” he wrote in an e-mail. "The non-virulent strain lacks dangerous segments of the infectious anthrax protein molecule. The Sterne strain is commonly used to vaccinate livestock against the disease.”

Work on the strain, Cohen said, was done in a biosafety level 2 lab that is designed to prevent the release of any bacteria into the environment. Additionally, an oversight committee monitors experiments and procedures on an ongoing basis.

"These safety, environment and oversight procedures are standard at OMRF and are employed any time OMRF is working with any bacteria, virus or organism that could pose a risk to humans, animals or the environment,” he wrote.

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