Dr. Joseph H. Coggin Jr. (professor of microbiology and head of the ORNL Molecular Anatomy Tumor Program) and his research group were studying the parallels between pregnancy and cancer in 1972, when 50 percent of hamsters being used for the research developed lymphoma. The total population was destroyed, and the areas used in the Hesler Biology Building were sterilized and closed for a few months. A new population of hamsters was then placed in the lab, and within a few months, 50 percent of the rodents had developed lymphoma. Exhaustive sterilization of the facilities was undertaken, including complete dismantling of the room in which the hamsters were kept and a change of personnel for the project. A new population of hamsters was introduced and within six months developed lymphoma.
The “UT Virus” gave every appearance of being infectious, transmissible, and unable to be destroyed. Hamsters infected with the virus were sent to Washington, California, and Yale University for study, and the exported hamsters infected colonies into which they were introduced and contaminated research facilities as they had Hesler. It was found that the virus could be transmitted to other species, including possibly humans. Coggin left UT for the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in 1977, and the trailers on the Hill went with him. Hamsters in Hesler infected with the virus were destroyed. When it was found that infected hamsters had been improperly housed in the trailers—the facility for the “normal” (unaffected) hamsters of Coggin’s research—the UT Animal Facilities Committee determined that no animals could be moved from the trailers to the new animal facility in Walters Life Sciences Building.