The Scientist
04-03-06
Fourteen states want US bio-agro lab
Billions in economic impact attracts variety of public and private bidders
Public and private institutions in at least 14 states have applied to the US
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to build and operate its proposed $451
million National Bio-and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), the replacement for the
department’s aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) near Long
Island, New York. DHS has said it will choose a “short list” of candidates by this
fall.
The 14 applicants are located in seven Southern states (Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas), five Midwestern
states (Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin) and two Western
states (California and Colorado). Bidders range in size from a consortium of
California public and private universities that have paired with the Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, down to the governments of St.
Lucie County in Florida and Bent County in rural Colorado.
The 500,000 square foot lab, to be built on 46,450 square meters, will expand on
Plum Island’s mission, conducting research to create vaccines and drugs to fight
human diseases, foreign animal diseases, and animal diseases humans can
catch. It will house researchers from DHS, the Department of Agriculture
(USDA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Wherever the new lab is located, it will have an enormous local economic impact,
experts say. According to a study by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson
Institute of Government, the NBAF will bring in between $3.5 billion and $6 billion
over 20 years. Salaries alone will reach up to $2.5 billion, the report says. The
NBAF will also be extremely important for training a larger corps of agricultural
researchers, according to Bennie Osburn, dean of the School of Veterinary
Medicine at the University of California at Davis.
The Scientist compiled its list via confirmations from individual schools.
Applications had to be postmarked -- not received -- by March 31, so additional
institutions, still unknown, may have applied for the NBAF site.
DHS continues to leave the future of Plum Island uncertain. The department web
site notes that “it is anticipated that existing programs and PIADC would transfer
to the new facility,” but adds that the DHS might build the new NBAF there or
keep the facility at Plum Island, currently equipped to handle biosafety level
(BSL) 3 experiments, “and recapitalize [the facility] meet 21st century laboratory
standards.” Most of the buildings at Plum Island -- the only US laboratory capable
of handling large cattle in BSL-3 security -- were constructed in the early 50s,
and are aging badly.
Some experts said they are concerned that politics, not merit, might decide the
winner. They worry that some states might have a leg up, given their political
connections -- for instance, Texas is President Bush’s home state, and Gov.
Haley Barbour of Mississippi was in the Bush Administration. Congressman Hal
Rogers (R-KY), chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriations
Subcommittee, also wants to build the NBAF in his district. Still, George Stewart,
a professor at applicant University of Missouri, said that his state’s Congressional
delegation has assured him that the vetting process is “above board.”
When asked which applicants most deserve the NBAF, agricultural experts The
Scientist interviewed mentioned the California combination, because it includes
the state’s university system and DOE’s Lawrence Livermore lab; the Athens,
Georgia group, partly because it is near USDA labs; and the North Carolina
Research Triangle consortium, because it includes Duke, the University of North
Carolina, and the vet school at North Carolina State University. Experts also
gave nods to Iowa State University, which is near a main USDA lab complex;
Kansas State University, because the state is building its own National
Agricultural Biosecurity Laboratory; and the group led by Texas A&M, partly
because it already houses the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic
Disease Defense.
John Miller
jmiller@the-scientist.com
Links within this article
"Fact Sheet: National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility," Department of Homeland
Security, August 22, 2005.
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4752