(NaturalNews) The nation’s food supply may soon be under significant threat as the result of a Bush administration decision to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland, placing it near herds of livestock.
Research on diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans will be included at this new laboratory, the National Bio-and-Agro-Defense Facility. The rationale for the new laboratory is that the current facility, in Plum Island, does not have the security in place for this higher-level usage. The Department of Agriculture ran the Plum Island lab until 2003, when it was turned over to the Homeland Security Department because preventing an outbreak has become part of the nation’s biological defense program. Other locations being considered are Butner, N.C.; San Antonio, Tx; and Flora, Miss.
Although rarely a threat to humans, hoof-and-mouth virus is deadly to animals. It can be transported on workers breath, clothes, or vehicles when they leave the lab. It is so contagious that it has been confined to Plum, Island, New York for over 50 years where it is far from commercial livestock. The current location, 100 miles northeast of New York City in the Long Island Sound, is accessible only by ferry or helicopter.
Plum Island researchers work on detection of disease, epidemic control strategies, vaccines and drugs, tests of imported animals, and training of professionals. Researchers who work with the live virus are not permitted to own susceptible animals at their homes, and they are required to wait at least a week before attending outside events where such animals might be encountered, such as circuses or rodeos.
According to the article, a simulated outbreak of the disease was part of a 2002 government exercise called Crimson Sky. “It ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation’s National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets.” The government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch 25 miles long in Kansas to bury the carcasses.
Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan. portrayed the president in the simulation, and recalls what a mess it was. Nevertheless, he now supports moving the government’s new lab to his state, because “It will mean jobs” and spur research and development, he says.
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