Dept. of Homeland Security Plans National Bio and Agro Defense Facility

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology directorate is exploring possible sites for its proposed $500 million National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF). Locations include Flora, Miss.; Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.; Texas Research Park in San Antonio; Umstead Research Farm, N.C.; the University of Georgia in Athens; and Plum Island, N.Y., the location of the existing BSL-3 Animal Disease Center which the NBAF will replace. Final site selection is expected in early fiscal year 2009 with construction beginning in 2013. A joint activity with the departments of Agriculture and the Health and Human Services, the NBAF will address biological and agricultural security risks in a state-of-the-art BSL-4 facility. The building will be equipped with laboratories to conduct research involving diseases that may be transmitted between humans, diseases that may be transmitted from animals to humans, as well as foreign animal diseases. The NBAF mission includes the development of vaccine countermeasures for foreign animal diseases and development of advanced test and evaluation capabilities.