The person who contracted brucellosis in UW-Madison Professor Gary Splitterâ??s lab didnâ??t catch the unauthorized, antibiotic-resistant strain that prompted the university to shut down his lab, said Bill Mellon, associate dean for research policy. Splitter lost his lab privileges for five years because two of his graduate students and a post-doctoral researcher inserted drug-resistant brucella germs into mice without permission from local or federal authorities. Someone in the lab later contracted brucellosis, which is an infectious disease that can cause fevers, joint pain and fatigue. He or she recovered.
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