Over 5,000 gallons of biological waste removed from illegal California lab that contained bioengineered mice and disease samples including HIV and hepatitis
- Investigators discovered an illegal medical lab in a California warehouse in March.
- The lab contained bioengineered mice and samples of diseases such as COVID-19, HIV, and herpes.
It took months after a makeshift medical lab was discovered in California before investigators emptied the property, removing thousands of gallons of pathological waste and bioengineered mice from the illegal warehouse research center.
An investigation by the Fresno Department of Public Health revealed hazardous material was being kept within the warehouse in inadequate refrigerators and freezers after a code enforcement officer noticed a hose illegally connected to the building last December.
"I'll be honest, this is an unprecedented event that has happened and really this is the first lab that has ever popped up like this where we've needed enforcement," Jesalyn Harper, a code enforcement officer for the city of Reedley who first responded to issues at the building in December, told Insider, adding "from our understanding, the warehouse itself was supposed to be completely empty."
When it was searched in March and April, after warrants were filed with the health department, the lab was found to contain medical equipment and dozens of unlabeled vials, some of which were later determined to hold bacterial and viral infectious agents, including E. Coli, chlamydia, herpes, and hepatitis, according to documents from the health department.
In addition to the blood, tissue, and disease samples, investigators found about 1,000 lab mice that a representative for the company told investigators had been bioengineered to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus, Insider previously reported. Roughly 200 of the mice had died before investigators searched the property.
Harper told Insider the lab representative who referenced bioengineering to investigators spoke limited English, which may have meant that the mice were injected with the diseases to get them to produce antibodies, as supplies for creating rapid tests for pregnancy and COVID-19 were found on-site.
"Typically, what they do for antibodies is mice will be injected with whatever it is you need antibodies for, and they start developing antibody cells. Then what you can do is extract that cell and use it to make a rapid response test. That's a very common practice," Harper told Insider, adding that there is nothing in the lab that poses a current risk to the public. "They're technically genetically modified, but they're not genetically modified for what everyone believes.
She added that there was no evidence that the mice on-site were contagious or that they had been released into the city.
From July 5 through 7, months after the lab's discovery, public health officials took three separate trips to the warehouse to clean it of the hazardous waste, documents related to the clearing of the warehouse show. The officials removed more than 5,000 gallons of pathological waste from the site.
"Thirty-five separate refrigerators and freezers were identified that contained the following: (1) biological material, including blood, tissue, serum, bodily fluid samples; (2) medical waste; (3) infectious agents; and (4) containers, vials, boxes, bags, laboratory equipment and other storage devices that were contaminated by biological material, medical waste, and/or infectious agents," the building abatement documents read.
"What's happening in Reedley is very similar to what occurred at the Wuhan lab," Fresno City Council member Garry Bredefeld said in a Monday press conference about the lab discovery, denouncing how long it took investigators to empty the site and inform the public about what was found.
Bredefeld did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The origins of the COVID-19 virus remain unclear, though intelligence agencies have put increasing stock in the idea that the virus originated and escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, in 2019.
He added: "Are there any other labs like this floating around? And what is happening with the people who are involved in this lab? These are the questions that I've been asked by the public. These are the questions that should be answered by the Fresno Board of Supervisors and the Fresno County Department of Public Health."
A representative of the company operating the lab, Prestige Biotech, called the mice "very valuable biological assets," according to documents reviewed by Insider.
Attorneys for the Fresno County Department of Public Health, which investigated the incident in addition to Harper's city department, and the president of Prestige Biotech, Inc. did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.