2 Years After Fire, Producer of Rare Research Mice Is Back in Business

BAR HARBOR, Me. — The world’s largest producer of rare mutant mice for research has resumed near-normal production two years after being heavily damaged by fire.

“We are at 90% of pre-fire levels and we expect to reach 100% this fall,” said Kenneth Paigen, director of the Jackson Laboratory.

Before the May 10, 1989, fire destroyed the mouse production plant, the laboratory was distributing almost 2 million mice annually to 11,200 locations around the world.

The disruption of the supply of 1,700 mutant mice that the laboratory provides slowed or halted $600 million to $700 million worth of research projects in the United States, Paigen said during a geneticists’ meeting last week.

The mice are used to mimic a wide variety of human diseases, allowing research that would not be possible with humans, he said.

In the wake of the fire, a government panel determined that the laboratory was a unique national resource, and Congress authorized $20 million to build the new breeding plant.

The fire, which was accidentally started during remodeling, destroyed about 60% of the supply of mice. None of the rare mutant strains were lost because separate colonies had been maintained elsewhere as a security measure.