The dean and party secretary of the animal medical school at Northeast Agricultural University, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, have been removed from their positions due to a group of staff and students being infected by a serious disease through the department's laboratory, China Youth Daily reported Saturday.

Earlier this year, 27 students and one teacher were found as having been infected with brucellosis, an infectious disease which can lead to incapacitation and permanent damage of central nervous system. They were sent to a local hospital for treatment.

Wang Yongjie (not his real name), a senior student at the application technology department of the university, suffered from joint pain, fatigue, sweating and a high fever in January 2011. The symptoms were later diagnosed as brucellosis.

"It was all due to the university's negligence that we were infected," Wang said. Wang and another 29 students did a sheep anatomy experiment in a lab of the animal medical department on Dec 19, 2010.

"The lab's equipment was in disarray and the whole environment was unsanitary, where we conducted the anatomy," Wang recalled.

Experts from Beijing Ditan Hospital said, "Brucellosis, mainly transmitted by touching animals, may injure the central nervous system and cause complications such as cerebromeningitis."

The university has said it will cover all the medical expenses of the 28 infected, as well as offer certain compensation packages.