Thursday, December 18, 2008

Plum Island Lab Moving To Kansas - Goes BSL-4 From Patricia Doyle, PhD

Plum Island Lab Moving To
Kansas - Goes BSL-4
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
12-18-8


Hello Jeff -- The mystery is over, looks like Kansas has been selected to house the level 4 Agra facility. A smart move, putting a lab that researches foreign animal diseases like Classical Swine Fever, Foot and Mouth Disease, Nipah Virus and other pathogens in the midst of our agricultural center. FMD in the midst of cattle country?

If the new Plum Island is anything like the old one and safety and other violations take place, our US livestock industry could be wiped out. Maybe that's the idea? FMD outbreak in Kansas would be more costly and more devastating to our livestock industry than the FMD in the UK in 2000/01.

I hope the new upgraded facility will be better policed than Long Island's Plum Island. We all remember the accidents, mishaps, strike etc. This time they have level 4 pathogens, some of which are zoonotic and infect humans and they really need to adhere to the most stringent safety protocols possible.

Patty


Plum Island Off Government List For New Biolab
By Alaine Griffin
The Hartford Courant

The Plum Island Animal Disease Center off the Connecticut coast is no longer on the government's list of potential sites for a new lab that would study some of the world's deadliest diseases, according to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week selected a site in Kansas for the proposed $450 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal opposed locating the new lab on Plum Island, a move that would have required raising the existing lab's biosafety level to a designation that would allow researchers there to study deadly and incurable diseases.

The Plum Island facility is now classified as a level 3 lab that involves the study of animal-to-animal pathogens. A "4" designation allows scientists to research more deadly diseases that can be spread to humans.

Connecticut residents have objected to laboratory upgrades at Plum Island in the past, fearing that lethal viruses could escape onto the mainland. But scientists have maintained for years that the lab is safe and secure.

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-plum1209.artdec09,0,6383434.story



Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics Univ of West Indies Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at:
http://www.emergingdisease.org/phpbb/index.php Also my new website:
http://drpdoyle.tripod.com/ Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health

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