Fresno City Councilman speaks out about lab shut down in Reedley

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Last December, the City of Reedley's code enforcement team knocked on the door of Prestige Biotech and Universal Meditech after seeing something out of place-- a green garden hose running through the property.

Officials then found the property was operating without a license or permit.

By March of this year, court documents show Fresno County worked with the City of Reedley and applied for a warrant to inspect the property

They found Prestige Biotech and Universal Meditech Inc. had biological agents at the facility.

Fresno City Councilman Garry Bredefeld voiced his outrage on Monday.

"There was blood, tissue, bodily fluid samples, and thousands of vials with fluids that are not labeled," Councilman Bredefeld said. "They also found 900 mice, 200 mice that were dead."

In addition to the mice, a state medical waste investigation shows refrigerators and freezers with blood and containers labeled as "serum or plasma -- and found Prestige Biotech is not registered with the department as a medical waste generator.

Court documents also show CDC staff found at least 20 potentially infectious agents from chlamydia to hepatitis.

City staff say those in the lab told them "they are making pregnancy and covid-19 tests."

Reedley's city manager Nicole Zieba says they learned the company previously operated in Fresno.

"We, the city of Fresno, will certainly be doing our due diligence with this situation, looking at any relationship that occurred in the city with this lab or what they may be trying to do in the future and the city is going to do that work. I can assure you," Councilman Bredefeld said.

Councilman Bredefeld added that he believes the Fresno County public health department should have informed the public before July, but Joe Prado with the department says there were public notices on the building and on their website throughout the investigation.

"I just want our community to know that we were able to mitigate this issue significantly and immediately with all the resources we had available to us," Prado said.

Fresno County Public Health officials say there is no risk to the public.

The City of Reedley considers the building abandoned and plans to destroy it.

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