• UPDATE (5/18/24): Following WCW’s campaign and federal action, taxpayer funding has been suspended for EHA’s scheme to import bats from Asia and establish a dangerous new experimentation lab and breeding colony at Colorado State University.
• WCW has uncovered an alarming pattern of recent animal lab accidents at CSU, which is working with the notorious EcoHealth Alliance and the NIH to build a new bat lab and breeding colony.
• Never-before-seen records obtained by WCW show that from 2020 to 2023, dozens of animal lab accidents with bats, cats, hamsters, and mice exposed CSU staff to coronaviruses, Zika, rabies, Tuberculosis, and other dangerous pathogens that can cause deadly outbreaks.
• Last year, WCW exposed how $13 million of taxpayers’ money is being wasted by CSU and EcoHealth to build a new lab and import hundreds of bats from Asia to establish a new breeding colony and infect them with deadly viruses, including Ebola and Nipah
• The new bat lab at CSU is now scheduled to be completed in December 2024

Last year, White Coat Waste Project (WCW) exposed how $13 million of taxpayers’ money is being wasted by Colorado State University (CSU) and Wuhan lab partner EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) to build a new lab at CSU and import hundreds of bats from Asia to establish a new breeding colony and infect them with deadly viruses, including COVID, Ebola and Nipah.

Actual photos of Colorado State University’s experiments on bats

Now, through a Colorado Open Records Act request, WCW has obtained never-before-seen documents detailing an alarming pattern of recent animal lab accidents at CSU.

Construction on Colorado State University and EcoHealth’s new $13 million tax-funded bat lab is underway and expected to be completed by December 2024. The photo above was obtained by concerned citizens with the group Covid Bat Research Moratorium of Colorado.

According to internal university records obtained by WCW, from 2020 to 2023, CSU experienced lab accidents with bats, cats, hamsters, and mice that exposed staff to coronaviruses, Zika, rabies, Tuberculosis, and other dangerous pathogens that can cause deadly outbreaks. The internal reports detail a total of 64 CSU lab accidents during this period.

Documents also show that in some cases, CSU animal experimenters ignored biosafety rules, including not wearing gloves or lab coats when handling infected animals.

Previously released records show that even before 2020, CSU had a history of laboratory accidents with dangerous, deadly, and contagious pathogens like the ones above and others including plague, Brucella, chikungunya, Valley Fever, and Q Fever.  CSU’s bat labs have also been fined for violations of federal animal welfare laws.

Biologists have called CSU and EcoHealth’s plan to import bats “utterly irresponsible” and warned that if any of these non-native bats escaped from CSU it could be disastrous.

CSU’s current bat experiments are receiving millions in taxpayer funding through NIH, the National Science Foundation, the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Interior, and the Department of Defense’s “Combatting Weapons of Mass Destruction” account.  

This new taxpayer-funded bat lab being built by CSU, NIH, and EcoHealth Alliance is a waste of money and a threat to public health. We’re working with Congress now to fully de-fund EcoHealth and stop this batty project, which is under construction and slated to be done in December 2024.

Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to foot the $13 million bill to build another bat lab at CSU given its extensive history of dangerous lab accidents, wasteful experiments, and animal welfare violations.