Important Takeaways:
- ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’: Illegal medical lab discovered in Reedley
- An investigation into a Reedley warehouse uncovered a large-scale illegal medical lab complete with bioengineered mice, infectious agents, nearly 30 refrigerators and freezers some of which were non-operational, incubators, and more leaving officials shocked and the public worried.
- Local, state, and federal agencies are all involved and what prompted this investigation was a simple garden hose that was illegally attached and coming out of a wall in the back of the building.
- “I’ve never seen this in my 26-year career with the County of Fresno,” said Assistant Director of the Fresno County Department of Public Health Joe Prado.
- What was supposed to be an empty building used only for storage was home to a black-market type of lab testing facility.
- “So there was over 800 different chemicals on site in different bottles of different acids.
- Health officials discovered nearly 1,000 lab mice, 200 of which were already dead.
- Also found were thousands of vials, many of which contained biohazardous materials including human blood, and other unknown substances.
- According to court documents officials with the Centers for Disease Control tested what they could and determined that at least 20 potentially infectious viral, bacterial, and parasitic agents were present including E. Coli, malaria, and even COVID.
- Officials are still trying to figure out what type of operation was taking place inside that building. Prado said the owners operated under the name Prestige Biotech and the company president was not forthcoming with information.
- A criminal investigation is also ongoing.
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