The Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which the Department of Homeland Security plans to shut down after a new, more sophisticated research lab is built in Kansas, may have gotten a new lease on life this month, when federal legislators decided to delay funding the construction of the new lab pending a favorable report by the Government Accountability Office.

Homeland Security appropriations bills recently passed by both houses of Congress withheld funding for construction of the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kan., until after the GAO completes its study, now under way, to determine whether foot-and-mouth disease can be safely studied on the mainland. Foot-and-mouth disease, one of the most highly contagious livestock viruses -- it infects virtually every cloven-hooved animal that's exposed to it -- has been studied at the Plum Island facility for 55 years.

In a May 2008 report to Congress, prepared in response to a request from Michigan Congressman John Dingell, the GAO said Homeland Security had no scientific basis for its conclusion that foot-and-mouth disease research could be safely conducted on the mainland. An outbreak would have potentially devastating consequences for the livestock industry, totaling tens of billions of dollars, the report said.

The homeland security agency nevertheless selected the Manhattan, Kan., site -- one of six sites on a list of "finalists" that included Plum Island despite strong local opposition here -- for the construction of a $450 million Biosafety Level 4 lab. A BSL-4 facility is the most rigorous biological containment facility available, equipped to handle research on "microorganisms that pose a high risk of life-threatening disease and for which there is no known vaccine or therapy," according to DHS. That includes foreign animal and zoonotic diseases, or diseases transmitted from animals to humans.

Although President Obama's homeland security chief, Janet Napolitano, supports construction of the NBAF in Kansas and included construction funding in the agency's 2010 appropriations requests, members of Congress from the nation's heartland, where livestock is a multibillion-dollar industry, have expressed concerns about the safety of moving the animal disease research center off Plum Island, an 840-acre uninhabited island located 1 1/2 miles off Orient Point. Amendments to the Homeland Security appropriations bills adopted by both chambers of Congress require a finding by the independent GAO that foot-and-mouth disease research can safely be conducted in Kansas. Differences in the two bills -- extensive documents that appropriate $42.9 billion in discretionary funding for homeland security purposes -- are presently being reconciled by a special bicameral conference committee.

The GAO study is expected to be completed by the end of the year, according to Will Jenkins, an aide to Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton). Mr. Bishop, though opposed to the construction of the NBAF on Plum Island, supports keeping the Plum Island facility open as a BSL-3 lab. The aging lab facilities are currently undergoing improvements and renovations to ensure the safety of their present operations until 2015, when the NBAF is scheduled to be completed and operational. At that point, Plum Island would be shut down, according to plans published by the Homeland Security Department.

If GAO finds that working with live foot-and-mouth virus on the mainland is not safe for livestock, "DHS is going to have to revisit its plans," Mr. Jenkins said. Plum Island could possibly continue to work with the disease, while other research, requiring BSL-4 labs, could be done at existing Level 4 labs, Mr. Jenkins said.

A Homeland Security Department spokesman declined to comment on what the agency might do if GAO says foot-and-mouth research should not be conducted on the mainland. "We'll address the findings of the GAO report after it's issued," said DHS spokesman Matthew Chambers.

Mr. Chambers said the delay in appropriating construction funding will not necessarily delay the start of construction of the NBAF, since it's not scheduled to get under way until late 2010.

Meanwhile, Plum Island will continue to operate until the new NBAF is completed in 2015, and safety, security and facility upgrades at Plum Island are continuing, Mr. Chambers said.

denise@timesreview.com

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