Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with the Chief Veterinarian of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Dr. Kathy Simmons, about the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.
Located in Manhattan, Kansas, the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility is a state-of-the-art animal disease laboratory to be operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help protect the nation’s agriculture, farmers, and citizens against the threat and potential impact of serious animal diseases.
NBAF will replace the 68-year-old Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), where USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) currently conduct foreign animal disease research, training and diagnostics. ARS and APHIS will transfer their research and diagnostic missions from PIADC to NBAF and will operate the facility jointly.
“This facility has a BSL-3 level lab, and then the most threatening pathogen lab, the BSL-4 level lab within the nucleus of the building,” Simmons said. “We were able to tour NBAF and it looks like a wonderful facility. It seems to be very well staffed, and I think the transition is going to be made here this fall of all of the scientists and the pathogens to come over from Plum Island.”
The Department of Homeland Security has already given USDA APHIS (Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service) and ARS (Agricultural Retail Service) the keys to the facility, Simmons said, and USDA is now working to facilitate the start of the work to be done.
“It gives us a state-of-the-art facility, we have become one of the big five now who have BSL-4 animal disease facilities,” Simmons said. “Globally, there are only five countries that do, and we are one of them. I think that gives us a leg up in a lot of work that we can do now that maybe couldn’t have as easily in the past with brand new facilities and much of the staff that have come over from Plum Island.”
NBAF had the dedication and ribbon-cutting activities in May, and now many of the scientists from Plum Island are moving to Manhattan. Now, some of the pathogens are in the process of being moved from Plum Island to the facility in Manhattan.
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