Disease Lab should be at Least-Risk Location

[Nancy]

Disease Lab should be at Least-Risk Location
Friday, May 23, 2008

WASHINGTON ? A new national laboratory for researching and diagnosing foreign animal diseases should be located on the US mainland in an area with small livestock and wildlife populations, the National Pork Producers Council said in congressional testimony this week.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on a replacement facility for the 54-year-old Plum Island Animal Disease Center located just off the coast of Long Island, NY, where research and diagnoses on, and development of vaccines for, foreign animal diseases take place.

Five mainland sites for the new National Bio and Agri-Defense Facility (NBAF) ? in Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas ? are under consideration. (Keeping the disease lab on Plum Island is still an option.) NPPC told the subcommittee that each area should be assessed for:
? Susceptible animal populations that could be exposed to an outbreak should disease organisms escape from the facility.
? The ability of the federal and state governments to quickly control and eradicate a disease.
? The impact of an outbreak on the local environment and the wildlife population.
? The economic consequences to the area?s livestock industry if an outbreak were to occur.

NPPC, which said the Plum Island facility cannot continue to operate in its current state and that there are serious drawbacks to building a new facility ? or refurbishing the existing one ? on the island, testified that whichever location is chosen, the new facility should be built to meet needs and objectives related to a predetermined scope of work ? that is, the type of research and diagnostic work that must be undertaken.

NPPC asked that the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Plum Island, work with the animal agriculture industry to define a scope of work for the NBAF.

"The location of the NBAF must be based on assessed risks rather than on which entity is willing to build such a facility," said Howard Hill, a veterinarian and COO of Iowa Select Farms, who testified on behalf of NPPC.

"Locations need to be reexamined to see if the 'island effect' can be recreated by siting the facility in an area with low densities of livestock and wildlife. And we need the new facility to enhance the capabilities of our industry with regard to research, diagnostics and treatment for all foreign animal diseases."

ThePigSite News Desk

 

[mixin]

Re: Disease Lab should be at Least-Risk Location

I hope they really do choose wisely. In articles I've read, Plum Island has not had the best safety record. I would love to see the exercise "Crimson Sky" but I have yet to find a published copy; only snips like the one below.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/04/11/national/w002944D40.DTL&tsp=1 :
Accidents at Disease Lab Acknowledged
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
Friday, April 11, 2008
(snips)

The only U.S. facility allowed to research the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease experienced several accidents with the feared virus, the Bush administration acknowledged Friday.

A 1978 release of the virus into cattle holding pens on Plum Island, N.Y., triggered new safety procedures. While that incident was previously known, the Homeland Security Department told a House committee there were other accidents inside the government's laboratory.

"Would an accidental laboratory release at these locations have the potential to affect nearby livestock?" asked the nine-page document. It did not directly answer the question.

A simulated outbreak of the disease in 2002 ? part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called "Crimson Sky" ? ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation's National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses. In the simulation, protests broke out in some cities amid food shortages.

"It was a mess," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who portrayed the president in that 2002 exercise. Now, like other lawmakers from the states under consideration, Roberts supports moving the government's new lab to his state. Manhattan, Kan., is one of five mainland locations under consideration. "It will mean jobs" and spur research and development, he says.

Other possible locations for the new National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility are Athens, Ga.; Butner, N.C.; San Antonio; and Flora, Miss. The new site could be selected later this year, and the lab would open by 2014. The number of livestock in the counties and surrounding areas of the finalists range from 542,507 in Kansas to 132,900 in Georgia, according to the Homeland Security Department's internal study.

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee also are worried about the lab's likely move to the mainland. Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and the head of the investigations subcommittee, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., also demanded reports about "Crimson Sky" and other studies on the consequences of live virus research on the U.S. mainland. Cohen, the Homeland Security official, said those documents were provided.

Plum Island researchers work on detecting the disease, controlling epidemics using vaccines and drugs, testing imported animals and training professionals.

The new facility will add research on diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans. The Plum Island facility is not secure enough to handle that higher-level research.