Thursday, October 30, 2025 - An “aggressive” monkey infected with COVID and multiple s£xually transmitted diseases is reportedly running loose through Mississippi in the US after a truck overturned on an Interstate and released a pack of the diseased lab primates.
The truck carrying the cartload of rhesus monkeys from a
research center affiliated with Tulane University careened into a ditch north
of Heidelberg Tuesday afternoon, according to the Jasper County Sheriff’s
Department.
The 40-pound monkeys carry COVID, hepatitis C, and herpes
and are “aggressive to humans,” the department warned. Humans should not handle
the animals without PPE, it added.
The truck itself was wrecked, leaving a hole just large
enough for the primates whose cages were broken during the crash to escape into
the Mississippi valleys, according to a photo shared by the sheriff’s
department.
It’s unclear how many monkeys were packed into the truck, but all those who escaped were quickly seized and euthanized, except for one still on the lam.
The department advised anyone who sees the fugitive monkey
to call 911 and stay as far away from it as possible.
However, Tulane University refuted the sheriff’s
department’s report that the animals were infectious.
“Non-human primates at the Tulane National Biomedical
Research Center are provided to other research organizations to advance
scientific discovery. The primates in question belong to another entity and are
not infectious. We are actively collaborating with local authorities and will
send a team of animal care experts to assist as needed,” the university said in
a statement.
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