How Kansas Nabbed the New Bio- and Agro-Defense Lab

[FarCenter]

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee* -- http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/322/5908/1620b

If you build it, they will come. The maxim seems to have worked for Kansas State University (KSU) in Manhattan, which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) selected last week as its preferred site for a $450 million facility to replace the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center off Long Island, New York. What made the university stand out from the competition, KSU and federal officials say, was a recently completed $54 million biocontainment lab on campus for animal research, funded by the state, as well as the lack of any vigorous local opposition to work involving dangerous animal pathogens.

DHS announced in 2006 that it would replace the Plum Island center, a biosecurity level 3 (BSL-3) lab where researchers have been studying livestock diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and anthrax for 5 decades, with a BSL-4 National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) to be located on Plum Island or somewhere on the mainland. Although some environmental groups opposed the decision, DHS argued that the new facility was needed to study emerging animal diseases such as African swine fever--which can only be handled in a BSL-4 lab--and that building it would cost less than upgrading the existing lab at Plum Island.

A total of 29 institutions submitted proposals to host the facility. DHS short-listed six of them, including Plum Island, in July 2007. Last week, DHS published a final Environmental Impact Statement for all six candidates, recommending KSU as its top choice and placing the University of Texas, San Antonio, and Georgia State University in Athens in second and third place, respectively. Governors of two of the losing states, Texas and Mississippi, have indicated that they may challenge the decision during the 30-day comment period before the selection becomes final. But federal officials say the choice is unlikely to be reversed.

<SNIP>

KSU has offered 15 hectares of land for the project, and the Kansas legislature has granted permission to the state to spend up to $105 million to bring roads and other infrastructure to the site. State officials expect NBAF to bring 1500 construction jobs, boost the state's veterinary and animal-care industry, and add a net $3.5 billion to the state economy.

<SNIP>