This page is sponsored by Atlantic Tractor
11 locations to serve all your agricultural needs!
Click on the logo to visit their web-site.

Delaware professor pleads guilty to poultry virus-smuggling charges

9.14.04

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A University of Delaware professor known for his research on avian diseases has pleaded guilty in Maine to a federal criminal charge related to the smuggling of a poultry virus, officials said.
Officials at the Newark university issued a news release late Thursday confirming that John K. Rosenberger had pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the receipt and concealment of a poultry virus.
Rosenberger had been charged with smuggling goods into the United States and aiding and abetting the concealment of a smuggled item.
Rosenberger was released on $25,000 unsecured bond. His sentencing will be scheduled after mid-November.
The university said it learned of the guilty plea in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maine.
UD provost Dan Rich said the school had no previous knowledge of any violations of university procedures and federal laws related to laboratory procedures.
“The institutional response to the information that we have now received and confirmed is to immediately begin an audit of laboratory procedures and processes and to provide further compliance education for laboratory personnel,’’ Rich said. “We will also cooperate fully with any inquiries from the United States Department of Agriculture or of other cognizant organizations.’’
Rosenberger has been a member the Department of Animal and Food Sciences faculty at UD since 1972. He is on leave and will be fully retired as of Jan. 1, the university said.
Officials said Rosenberger’s research and work diagnostics related to avian disease led to the opening of Allen Laboratory on the campus in 1996.