Elrino Street man claims research animals are escaping Bayview labs
by Sara Blumberg
Titus Kiruki of Elrino Street says he was in his home when he saw a mouse from the corner of his eye.
After killing the rodent, he noticed something peculiar about the animal’s ear.
“From the markings, I knew it was a lab mouse,” he said.
As a former employee at the animal research labs at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, he’s convinced the mouse escaped from the hospital.
“This poses a serious health risk if they’re escaping,” he said.
When mice are used in research, they are tagged using a series of notches on the ear. In addition, the mouse’s tail is also clipped. The identification system is universal, so that researchers can identify the mouse if it is transported from hospital to hospital.
While dangling the mouse tail-first, Kiruki described the distinct clippings on the animal’s head and tail.
“A normal rodent wouldn’t have these things on it,” he said.
The findings disturbed Kiruki because of the types of tests conducted on the specimens.
Bayview conducts various studies using such animals in the course of researching a wide range of diseases and vaccines, Kiruki said.
If one got out and was infected, it could pose serious health risks to the community, he said.
After finding the mouse, Kiruki got to work calling animal control and Bayview itself.
Bayview claimed that all its lab mice were accounted for, he said.
He has kept the mouse in his freezer as evidence.
Kiruki also contacted Elaine Welkie, president of the Bayview Community Association.
After hearing about the incident, Welkie called Bayview to see what was going on.
“Of course I was concerned about it; I wanted to know what was going on,” she said.
Welkie also said that in 12 years at the association president, she has never encountered a problem like this.
Like all communities, Bayview continues to have a rodent problem.
“Many people think a mouse like this would just be another rodent; it’s hard to tell if it actually came from the hospital if you aren’t looking for the signs,” he said.
Kiruki says that it’s hard to recognize a lab mouse since the markings are small.
After hearing the news, the Bayview medical staff performed their own investigation into the matter.
The hospital concluded that the rodent didn’t come from their research facility.
To be sure of their the findings, the hospital offered to examine the mouse, but was not given permission to do so, according to Bayview spokeswoman Karen Tong.
Kiruki says the hospital offered to pick up the rodent, not to examine it.
“It’s funny; they say it didn’t come from them, but they offered to take it from me,” he said.
Tong stressed that the likelihood of a mouse getting out of the Bayview research facilities is very small.
In addition to daily checks, personnel have installed live traps in the hospital, along with door sweeps to prevent a specimen from crawling out.
Kiruki continues to call around asking for help on his findings.
After calling the Baltimore City Health Department and other city officials, he’s concluded that everyone wants the issue to go away.
“Everyone tells me just to throw the rodent away,” he said.
For two weeks, the mouse has remained in his deep freezer.
Kiruki refuses to throw the mouse away for fear the problem could get worse.
As he takes a small stick, he folds back the mouse’s ear to show the markings.
“Someone could get very sick if the mice are getting out,” he said.
http://dundalkeagle.com/component/content/article/2-slideshow/37619-are-bayv
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