NARITA, Japan, March 4 (UPI) -- A research mouse was temporarily free at the Narita airport earlier this year, the first time a genetically modified animal had escaped captivity in Japan.
While the animal was promptly captured after escaping from the box it was being in which it was being transported, the Yomiuri Shimbun said the Jan. 24 incident immediately gained the attention of the Education, Science and Technology Ministry.
The ministry issued a warning to the mouse's owner, Central Institute for Experimental Animals, and called for more stringent controls of such modified animals.
The featured mouse, which was one of 40 that had its immune system genetically obliterated, had escaped its box by chewing through its lid during transport.
Typically a wire mesh is added to such boxes to prevent such an occurrence, but the institute apparently failed to do so in this instance, the report said.
The paper said Japan has specified regulations that all precautions must be made to ensure that no genetically modified animals are ever released into the wild.
