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U of M Lab Called “Worst In U.S.” On Animal Welfare After USDA Inspection

A University of Memphis (U of M) research laboratory violated numerous federal protocols concerning the care of test animals over the last year resulting in numerous animal deaths and a national animal welfare group wants the lab investigated and penalized. 

The violations were found during a routine inspection of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in August. Agents with that group found nine violations in the lab, which is not specifically identified in the report.

View the report here:

It is unknown how many animals are in the lab. The report does list at least 270 mole rats. But for scale, consider that the Memphis Zoo with its vast menagerie had no violations during its inspection in the same time frame, and neither did other research facilities like the University of Tennessee Health Science Center or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

A federal group, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), oversees animal welfare in research settings. It produces protocols for which laboratories must adhere to test on animals. 

One of the U of M lab’s major violations of these protocols came on April 1st this year. The building’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) broke overnight, causing higher temperatures and a lack of ventilation in a room containing animals. When lab attendants returned to the lab, they found 12 dead voles, which are small rodents related to hamsters.

Bank Vole (Credit: Soebe/Wikipedia)

The report says U of M did not have an alarm or monitoring system in place at the time to warn of ventilation problems. The lab fixed the problem before the August inspection.   

Other critical violations for the lab came as “animals [were] simply found dead, suffering with broken bones, or missing a limb. One vole was euthanized for having a swollen, red, hairless, left, front limb.” Lab officials could not tell inspectors what research study the animal was on, nor could they find any care records for it after attendants found it injured.

Further, a mole rat was discovered missing a “rear leg from a fight with other voles.” The animal was euthanized. On another occasion, voles were discovered with a broken rear leg, a hurt leg, and an eye swollen shut. They were euthanized “due to fight wounds on the head and face.” The report says the animals may have been agitated because lab attendants put a noise-making dehumidifier in the room and left the lights on in the room around the clock. Both issues were corrected, the report says. 

 Another, simpler protocol mandates daily observations of lab animals. However, during the August inspection the “assistant director stated that this is not being done and has not been done in a long time.”

Another violation said the lab did not list exactly how many animals it had. It also incorrectly listed species of animals it had.   

“The facility submitted an annual report for [fiscal year 2021] which listed 217 common mole rats,” reads the report. “The associate director stated that the facility did not have any common mole rats in [fiscal year 2021], instead they had approximately 270 ‘Damaraland mole rats’ which are a different species than common mole rats.”

“Amassing a total of nine federal violations, including three criticals, clearly shows that the University of Memphis is the worst lab in the U.S.”

SAEN co-founder Michael Budkie

For this and more, the national group Stop Animal Exploitation Now! (SAEN) filed a federal complaint and wants the lab investigated further and fined at the national maximum of $10,000 per violation. 

“Amassing a total of nine federal violations, including three criticals, clearly shows that the University of Memphis is the worst lab in the U.S.,” said SAEN co-founder Michael Budkie. “University of Memphis staff apparently can’t tell when animals are sick because they are just found dead, and even when they determine an animal is seriously ill and needs to be euthanized, they can’t even find the veterinary records.”

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U of M Research Aims at Tech Innovations in Health, Transportation

University of Memphis/Facebook

The University of Memphis took steps into the future of health care and transportation recently with a $5.9 million federal grant and a new research center.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded the grant to a group at the U of M focused on artificial intelligence (AI), mobile computing, wearable sensors, privacy, and precision medicine. Think of the way an Apple Watch can detect falls or monitor a heart rate; this group works to expand the idea into applications that could help people quit smoking or to adapt a healthier diet.

It’s a national group from U of M, Harvard University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of California at San Francisco. The group is called the mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization & Translation of Temporally-Precise Interventions (mDOT) and will be headquartered at the MD2K Center of Excellence at the U of M.

“Researchers and industry innovators can leverage mDOT’s technological resources to create the next generation of (mobile health, mHealth) technology that is highly personalized to each user, transforming people’s health and wellness,” said Santosh Kumar, mDOT’s, director of MD2K Center of Excellence, and U of M computer science professor.

All of the work takes aim at the rising cost of healthcare spending for patients with chronic diseases, many of which are linked to daily behaviors and exposures like dietary choices, sedentary behavior, stress, and addiction.

The U of M also created the Center for Transportation Innovation, Education and Research (C-TIER) to shape issues affecting the country’s multimodal transportation system and “to increase its economic competitiveness, and reduce economic, racial, and gender inequality.”

“In recent years, the transportation sector has seen introduction of disruptive technologies such as connected autonomous vehicles, battery electric vehicles, ride-share and mobility enhanced travel to make cities more safe, efficient, resilient, and environmentally friendly,” said Dr. Sabya Mishra, an U of M civil engineering professor who will serve as the center’s director. “Memphis is one of the national hubs of transportation.

“There is a need for interdisciplinary research at the University of Memphis to address the impact of innovative technologies, and forthcoming newer challenges.”

C-TIER’s work will improve mobility, accessibility, and safety and focus on transportation sustainability that will promote “smart, equitable cities” and improve efficiency of transportation systems that move freight and people.