States Compete for Deadly Diseases Research Lab

It was announced today that twelve U.S. states are vying to become the host for a new government research facility dealing with deadly diseases.

The facility, a proposed 520,000-square-foot complex will be called the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, which will be controlled by the Homeland Security Department. States involved with the bid are required to reserve at least 30 acres of land for the project.

Deadly diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and swine feverswill be studied at the new laboratory. The new research facility will eventually replace the older, much smaller facility in Plum Island, N.Y. Lapses in security at the Plum Island facility following the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Pennsylvania prompted the new project.

According the director of the Homeland Security Department's chem-bio division in its Science and Technology directorate, John Vitko, the priority at the new facility would be the study of foot-and-mouth diseases and other foreign germs that affect livestock and agriculture. In addition to foot-and-mouth-disease, African and classical swine fevers will also be studied.

It is still being debated by Homeland Security officials as to what other pathogens may be researched at the new deadly disease facility. Smallpox and anthrax have been mentioned, as well as the rare hemorrhagic fevers Marburg and Lhasa.

States bidding for the contract are: California, Texas, Georgia, Missouri, Kansas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Maryland, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Texas will be submitting four potential sites in their bid, Kansas and Mississippi two sites each, and Kentucky and Tennessee are working in tandem for a single site in Kentucky.

The written bids for the project have not yet been made public. Government officials will narrow down the field of bidders to three three to five locations sometime in June.

As expected, some states are opposed to playing host to such a facility.