USDA Dedicates Ames Biocontainment Facility

The U.S. Department of Agriculture dedicated its high containment large animal facility in Ames, Iowa in July of 2007. As the second component of a multi-phase, $460 million project, the state-of-the-art animal health center will accommodate research on a variety of endemic, zoonotic and foreign animal diseases. Housing BSL-3 laboratories, the facility was constructed in three and a half years and cost approximately $85 million. The new building contains more than 155,000 sf and will house cattle, bison, elk, deer, reindeer, sheep and hogs. It includes designated areas for research by scientists with USDA's Agricultural Research Service as well as for diagnostics testing training and biologic product evaluation by employees of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The center consolidates three units within the two USDA agencies: ARS' National Animal Disease Center, which conducts research concerning animal health and diseases with an agricultural impact; APHIS' National Veterinary Services Laboratories, which serves as a national and international reference laboratory and provides diagnostic services, reagents and training; and APHIS' Center for Veterinary Biologics, which regulates vaccines, bacterins, antisera, diagnostic kits, and other biological products for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of animal diseases. A consolidated lab and a low-containment animal facility are still under construction. By 2009, when the project is expected to conclude, the Ames complex will be one of the largest animal health centers in the world. It will have approximately 1 million sf of laboratory and research facilities, including the BSL-3 space.