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Homeland Security Focus Areas Agro-Terrorism DHS Issues Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF)Release Date: June 20, 2008 For Immediate Release The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate issued today the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility Draft Environmental Impact Statement (NBAF Draft EIS) for public review and comment. “The proposed NBAF would enable us to meet the challenges posed by the intentional or unintentional introduction of a foreign animal or zoonotic disease that could threaten the U.S. livestock industry, food supply and public health,” said Homeland Security Under Secretary for Science and Technology Jay Cohen. “By expanding and modernizing our ability to develop advanced test and evaluation capabilities and vaccine countermeasures for these types of diseases, we protect not only our nation’s security, but also the vibrancy of our agriculture system.” The proposed NBAF is a joint effort with the Department of Agriculture that would establish a state-of the-art, high-security laboratory facility to study both foreign animal and zoonotic diseases (diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans). The NBAF would be designed to replace the existing facilities at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) in New York. PIADC is currently the only facility in the U.S. that studies the live virus that causes Foot-and-Mouth disease. The current facility is too small to meet new research needs and has an outdated physical structure that makes it unsuitable for zoonotic disease research that must be conducted at the highest level of biosafety, BSL-4. There is no laboratory facility in the U.S. for BSL-4 research on livestock. No decision has been made yet on where, or even if, the facility would be built. The Science and Technology Directorate is undergoing this extensive review process to thoroughly evaluate each option, with the feedback of all interested parties, before any decision is made. The Draft EIS analyzes the proposal to design, construct and operate the NBAF, including risk assessments, for each of the six proposed NBAF locations: Athens, Ga.; Manhattan, Kan.; Madison County, Miss.; Granville County, N.C.; San Antonio, Texas and Plum Island, N.Y. The Draft EIS also analyzes a no-action alternative, in which a new facility is not built. A Notice of Availability will be published in the Federal Register, and DHS will host public meetings in the vicinity of each proposed site later this summer. The NBAF Draft EIS as well as information on submitting comments during the 60-day comment period, will also be available at www.dhs.gov/nbaf. The NBAF Final EIS is expected in late fall 2008, and a Record of Decision on if, and where, the NBAF would be constructed will be published no less than 30 days after the completion of the Final EIS.
U.S. seeks home for research on fearsome diseasesMon Aug 27, 2007 10:35PM BST By Charles Abbott WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal laboratory off Long Island, known as the "Alcatraz for animal disease," may move to the U.S. mainland as part of a new $450 million research center. Plans for the next-generation National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, slated to go online by 2013, include biosafety labs where scientists, clad in outfits resembling spacesuits and tethered to air supplies, would research diseases that can spread to people from animals. The Department of Homeland Security has partially completed a round of public hearings, which conclude September 20, on six potential sites for the NBAF, including Plum Island, which already houses an older research center. Public meetings are scheduled for Tuesday in Manhattan, Kansas, and for Thursday in Flora, Mississippi, on proposals to build the facility in those communities. Sites also have been proposed in San Antonio, Texas; Athens, Georgia, and Butner, North Carolina. The winning site would be named in fall 2008 under the schedule outlined by the government. For more than half a century, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center has been the only federal laboratory permitted to conduct research on live foot-and-mouth disease viruses. If another site is selected, Congress will be asked to repeal a law that bars such research on the mainland, a DHS spokesman said. Homeland Security says the NBAF would conduct research on highly contagious diseases, like foot-and-mouth disease and swine fever, along with two diseases that can spread to humans from animals, Rift Valley Fever and Japanese encephalitis. "Today's ... labs are extremely safe," said the spokesman, Larry Orluskie. There are four labs that run at biosafety level 4, which calls for multiple safeguards while handling high-risk disease organisms, in urban areas -- Atlanta, the Washington, D.C. suburbs, and in Galveston and San Antonio, Texas. By comparison, a college chemistry lab could be level 1. "There has never been a public exposure at a BSL-4 lab in the United States," DHS said in documents prepared for the public meetings, which will garner information on possible environmental impacts at each site. About 10 percent of the 520,000 square-foot NBAF would be devoted to biosafety level 4. Some 250-350 researchers, assistants and operations specialists would work at the facility, which would supersede work now performed at Plum Island in evaluating disease risk and developing vaccines and other counter-measures. Woody, 840-acre (340-hectare) Plum Island, two miles off the eastern tip of Long Island, is sometimes called the Alcatraz for animal disease because research on foot and mouth disease, one of the most feared livestock diseases in the world, is exiled on the island, similar to the way criminals were sent to the now-closed Alcatraz island penitentiary in San Francisco Bay. Plum Island houses a vaccine bank for foot and mouth disease, too, and its scientists play a role in diagnosis of other foreign animal diseases, such as hog cholera. They also work on rinderpest and vesticular stomatitus. "Our first priority is to keep foot-and-mouth disease off the American mainland," said Jay Truitt of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The last U.S. outbreak was 1929.
Newsday.comPlum Island plan focus of Homeland Security talksBY BILL BLEYER August 22, 2007 Even though Plum Island is not on the list of five sites being considered for a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, the Department of Homeland Security is scheduled to hold a public meeting tomorrow night in Southold to solicit comments on whether the island would be a good site for the lab.
August 7, 2007 Tests Confirm Foot-and-Mouth Disease in 2nd British HerdBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 5:40 a.m. ET LONDON (AP) -- Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said Tuesday tests had confirmed a second foot-and-mouth outbreak in southern England as he awaited an initial report into biosecurity at a vaccine laboratory suspected of being at the center of the cases. Benn said tests had been carried out on around 50 cattle culled late Monday and confirmed a second batch of cases. The cows were within the initial two-mile-radius protection zone set up Friday around a farm where a first group of infected cattle were found, 30 miles southwest of London. Laurence Matthews, who owns the farm where the second infected herd grazed, said the news had raised fears the virus could spread across the local rural community. ''We were starting to think this virus had been contained and maybe we were going to be getting back to normality in a few weeks,'' Matthews told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. ''Now this has set us back again and most farmers, and I've been speaking to a few, are very, very scared.'' Many fear a repeat of scenes from 2001, when 7 million animals were culled and incinerated on pyres dotted across the landscape, devastating agriculture and rural tourism in Britain. Matthews, who met Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he toured the region Monday, said the infected cows belonged to a fellow farmer who used his land. He called for local footpaths to be closed within the exclusion zone, saying some farmers believed the virus could be carried and spread on the feet of walkers passing through the area. Britain's Health and Safety Executive said it was releasing findings Tuesday of examinations into potential biosecurity breaches at a vaccine laboratory about four miles from the scene of the outbreak, officials said. The laboratory is shared by the government's Institute for Animal Health, or IAH, and a private pharmaceutical company, Merial Animal Health -- the British arm of Duluth, Ga.-based Merial Ltd. Merial said it found no evidence of a breach in biosecurity, and the IAH claimed a check of records found ''limited use'' of the virus in the past four weeks. ''The findings of the inquiry, which has looked at whether there have been any biosecurity lapses will be delivered around lunchtime,'' said a safety executive spokeswoman, on customary condition of anonymity in line with policy. Investigators have also looked into the possibility that recent flooding had helped the spread of the virus. Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, pigs and goats, but does not typically affect humans. Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said the strain found in the first outbreak matched samples taken during Britain's 1967 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The strain had not been seen in animals for a long time, but was used to produce vaccines, she said. Brown, who broke off a vacation to handle the response, said inquiries were continuing to pinpoint the cause of the outbreak, but acknowledged the disease strain found in the first infected herd is the same used at the research laboratory. National Farmers' Union president Peter Kendall said the latest case was ''not entirely unexpected'' given the nature of the disease. The first herd of around 120 cows was slaughtered Saturday after the virus was identified and confirmed in two animals, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, or DEFRA, said. A farmer first noticed signs of illness in his cows on July 29 and notified authorities on Thursday, according to a government report filed to the World Organization for Animal Health. The European Commission endorsed Britain's ban on the export of livestock, meat and milk. The commission also backed London's decision to halt movement of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs nationwide to prevent the spread of the virus. Imports of British pigs and pork products have been banned by the United States, Japan, Russia and South Korea in response to the outbreak. The United States and Japan already have bans in place on British beef imports.
Panel to pave way for massive bio-defense facilityBy Chris Strohm CongressDaily May 24, 2007
The House Homeland Security Committee plans to mark up a bill quickly after next week's recess to authorize a massive new bio-defense facility, paving the way for a high-stakes competition that some believe will bring billions of dollars in jobs and commerce to the winning congressional districts.
At least five lawmakers on the committee, including its chairman, represent districts that stand to benefit if the facility is built in or near them, according to an analysis by CongressDaily.
The authorization bill will give the Homeland Security Department authority to enter into a contract and begin construction on the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, a state-of-the-art center for researching and protecting against biological threats to humans and animals.
The department is evaluating 18 sites in 11 states, from California to North Carolina. Consortiums comprising local governments, private companies and universities have organized to bid for the contract, which is estimated to be worth nearly $500 million.
The competition is heating up, as the department plans to narrow the list of potential sites this summer and award a contract to one site in October.
The new center is expected to be one of the government's premier research labs for the next 50 years, bringing billions in jobs and commerce to congressional districts around it. Some community organizations near potential sites have protested, however, saying they fear the facility will be too dangerous.
House Homeland Security Emerging Threats Subcommittee ranking member Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is leading the charge to write the authorization bill.
"I anticipate this should move rather quickly through the Congress," McCaul said, adding that he expects the committee to do a markup soon after the Memorial Day recess.
The edge of McCaul's district is about 20 miles from Texas A&M University, a contender for the new center.
McCaul said he does not believe he has a conflict of interest in writing an authorization bill for the center while his district would benefit if the contract went to Texas A&M. "Of course I'd love to see Texas A&M selected," he said. "But the fact of the matter is, we are staying out of the selection process."
Another competing entity is the Gulf States Bio and Agro-Defense Consortium in Mississippi, which operates a site north of Jackson, Miss., on the fringe of the district represented by Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
Thompson could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But when the Homeland Security Department announced last August that the Gulf States Consortium was in the running, Thompson gushed with optimism.
"Today, we moved one step closer to securing a major homeland security asset for our state and nation," Thompson said in a statement. "With the collective participation of the entire metro-Jackson community, we now have a real opportunity to showcase our best and brightest.
"As this process moves forward, Mississippi's application will be strengthened by the contributions of a diverse cross-section of participants at every level. I look forward to working with our congressional delegation and state officials to make that happen."
Two other lawmakers on the Homeland Security Committee also represent districts near potential sites.
The Texas Biological and Agro-Defense Consortium is in the competition with three sites around San Antonio, Texas, on the fringe of the districts represented by Reps. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.
And the North Carolina Consortium has a site just outside the district of Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C.
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Focus Area Current News Media and Communication Issues Medical Care Delivery
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