UNSAFE BIOTECHNOLOGY LABORATORY - NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR INJURY - ILLNESS - DISEASE

WAS WORKING FOR A BIOTECH COMPANY SAFE? NOT WHEN ONE IS EXPOSED TO KNOWN AND UNKNOWN MICROORGANISMS. READ ABOUT THE EXPERIENCES OF WORKING FOR AGRAQUEST, INC. IN DAVIS - CALIFORNIA

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Agraquest's Research Microbial Lab In The Residential Neighborhood

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1105_kennedy_directory

While David worked at the 1st Agraquest laboratory which was located at the corner of 1105 Kennedy Place, Suite 4 in Davis California he was instructed to "pick up a drum" from an off-site farm.  When he returned to Agraquest with the "drum" he opened it in the lab. This "drum" had liquid in it. When David asked if it was safe he was told "yes" and was told to "dump the liquid" and clean in out so it could be reused for fermentation broth.

Where Agraquest "dumped" was down a so called "drain" outside the lab that led directly onto the ground.   As you can tell by the following photographs, the "drain was merely the hollowing out in the existing sidewalk.

drain

drain.continue end_of_drain

The end of  the drain sits flush with the corner of the building.  (While David  still worked at the Kennedy Place Location the hollowing out of the "drain" had not been jackhammered out as is shown in the above pictures.)

close_up_controlvalve cv_faucet

Around the corner of the building and the end of the drain was the  "irrigation control valve".  To the right of the "irrigation control valve" is the run-off drain from the roof.  As you will note, directly above the "irrigation control valve" is a faucet. Please note, this is a "clean faucet".  Pictures of the other "clean faucets" around the 1105 Kennedy Place building, as well as a faucet showing at the neighboring 1107 Kennedy Place can be found in "READ MORE".  As you will see a little further down this page, the faucet that was on the outside wall of the Agraquest lab was NOT clean.

1105_kennedy_pl down.knoll j_street_off_covel_bac_lab

Apartment complex's are located directly across the street from the back of the building where the old Agraquest laboratory was located and where the end of the "drain" faces.  These apartments are located on the corner of J Street and Kennedy Place. Additionally, single family dwellings and senior housing are located within direct proximity to the old Agraquest Laboratory where David became so ill.

drain_pipe gunk_close

pipe_closeup i
gunk
What was also found on August 13, 2006 was a dripping faucet  with  "GUNK" along the pipe and underneath .  This is also on the same exterior wall  where  the old Agraquest lab was located and is on the same  side  of the  building where the "drain" is. (In 2008 another wall had been placed next to the sidewalk with a  new  faucet installed and dirt has been placed between the  building's exterior  wall and the new wall containing a high flower  bed.
cros_drain clossup_dead.crow

Below the "gunky" dripping faucet was a dead crow.  It appeared the crow  had stopped  to get a drink.  There were  no  signs of the crow  decomposing nor were there any  signs of any crawling bugs or flying insects. Two weeks later the dead crow was still there AND AGAIN,  there  were  no  signs of decomposition,  crawling bugs  or flying insects.


clean_faucet_1

clean_faucet_2

 

Pictures of the "other"  faucets at the same 1105  Kennedy  Place location (taken the same day as the  above  picture with "gunk" on the  faucet).

 

 

1107_kennedy_sign1107_fucent
Additionally, the building next to 1105  Kennedy Place   (including ALL the  other  office buildings)  had "clean"  faucets as  is  shown  above and to the  left.

 

 

 

Agraquest moved from the Kennedy Place location in March of 1999 to 1530 Drew  Avenue.  This new  building  was built to  specifications for a proper  biotechnology business  which does research  and  development  (Bio Safety Requirements)drew.avefdoor.jpg

zoomout.jpg

upclose_1_1_1.jpg

 

 

 

 

building_side

GREENHOUSE
greenhouse
FERMENTOR
fermentor
"INSIDE" FERMENTOR showing mixing paddles
inside_fermentor

 

 

 

Agraquest location, 1530 Drew Avenue "drain"          Agraquest location, 1105 Kennedy Place, Suite 4 "drain"

DRAIN_DREW end_of_drain

As is easily seen in the above photo's, the two Agraquest locations had very different "drains".  The 1530 Drew Avenue location had several "drains" located on the property.

Since David got sick from the workplace exposure at Agraquest he struggles constantly to get the thick hyperplastic-like mucous out of his nose.   This is not what David had experienced before he went to work at Agraquest, he had "seasonal allergies" and he had a runny nose.

Nickel & "mucous ball"

1_mucous
"Mucous Balls"
3_mucous

4_mucous13_mucous2_mucous

 

 

 

 

 

David  has been told by physicians, "I don't know what this is" and "I've never seen anything like this before".

 

 

 

19_mucous
18_mucous
11_mucous12_mucous20_mucous21_mucous22_mucous
6_mucous
7_mucous7_mucous
10_mucous8_mucous
16_mucous17_mucous
15_mucous
VIDEO: VIEW HERE part 3

 

 

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Newsflash

Identification and Characterization of Novel Genetic Markers Associated with Biological Control Activities in Bacillus subtilis
-Raghavendra Joshi and Brian B. McSpadden Gardener Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, OARDC, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster 44691.
Accepted for publication 3 October 2005.

PAGE 4:
RESULTS
Characterization of strain-specific DNA fragments. In order to identify DNA markers for biological control in B. subtilis, SSH was conducted to identify sequences present in the genomes of strains GB03 and QST713 but absent in the genome of strain 168. In all, 149 subtracted fragments (74 from GB03 and 75 from QST713) were cloned and analyzed. Fragment lengths varied from 180 to 1,520 bp, with a median fragment size of 560 bp. Se- quence analyses revealed that 80 of the subtracted fragments (36 from GB03 and 44 from QST713) had significant nucleotide homology (E value <1E-4) to previously identified Bacillus sequences. The sequences of these fragments can be found in GenBank under accession numbers DQ011366-401 (GB03) and DQ0113402-446 (QST713) in the same order as presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. In several instances, clones from both strains GB03 and QST713 were identified that had similarity to gene fragments from homologous operons. These included genes for the biosynthesis of cyclic lipopeptides (bam/bmy, fen, and srf ) and the cell wall component teichuronic acid (tua). Subtracted fragments matching the yndJ gene from B. subtilis subsp. amyloliquefaciens strain FZB42 also were recovered from both strains GB03 and QST713. Additionally, multiple sporulation gene fragments (spo) were found in both subtracted libraries.

DISCUSSION:
We characterized over 60,000 bp of genomic sequence obtained from strains of B. subtilis used in two different biocontrol prod- ucts. Nearly half of the 149 sequences we analyzed were sufficiently different from those presently in GenBank that no functional assignments could be made (data not shown). We expect that many of those unique sequences represent noncoding regions which are likely to be strain specific and therefore of limited value for population studies. Nonetheless, further characterization of these unique sequences is warranted because some may encode novel genes, an unknown fraction of which may be involved in biological control. Of the 80 Bacillus-like sequences we obtained, 65 were associated with genes predicted to encode a variety of metabolic functions. Much research has gone into establishing the function of B. subtilis genes, but such work has yet to reveal the function of all of the ORFs identified in strain 168 (48). In addition, their potential roles in bacterial fitness in the natural environment and biocontrol activities in a managed environment remain highly speculative. Nonetheless, several of these gene fragments identified present intriguing new avenues for investigating the nature of antibiotic-mediated biocontrol. For example, dppC is pre- dicted to code for dipeptide transporters and the homologs identi-

Nearly half of the 149 sequences we analyzed were sufficiently different from those presently in GenBank that no functional assignments could be made

Identification of subtracted genome fragments obtained from Bacillus subtilis QST713 [AGRAQUEST]

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens- RESULTS
Subtracted fragments matching the yndJ gene from B. subtilis subsp. amyloliquefaciens strain FZB42 also were recovered from both strains GB03 and QST713.
Bacillus  cereus - RESULTS
.....with the exception that one of two faint bands amplified from most B. cereus strains comigrated with the ituC product amplified from the positive control strain, QST713.
...And, interestingly enough, only some of the B. cereus isolates and B. pumilus GB34 were maximally antagonistic to Phytophthora sojae in these assays, though QST713 did show a marginal degree of inhibition in all assays (i.e., average score of 1.0).

Bacillus  licheniformis (page 7)
...However, similar types of associations were observed in other Bacillus spp. As a group, all of the B. pumilus and B. licheniformis isolates scored (weakly) positive for one or more gene markers and were more inhibitory to R. solani (P = 0.01) compared with those strains lacking the scored markers. Additionally, the two B. pumilus isolates that were scored weakly positive for the bmy gene (i.e., 1.1a2 and 2.5a) were significantly more inhibitory to Pythium ultimum than the other isolates lacking all of the markers (P = 0.04). However, presence of the amplifiable markers was not necessarily a good predictor of biocontrol capacity in B. pumilus because the commercialized biocontrol strain GB34 was scored negative for all of the amplifiable targets, yet displayed in vitro in- hibition capacities similar to those of the commercialized B. subtilis strains GB03, MBI600, and QST713.