Billings, Mont. – In May, groundbreaking for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), a $1.25 billion project by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), took place in Manhattan, Kansas.
But well before the first shovel of dirt was moved, livestock organizations like R-CALF USA were voicing their opposition of building this facility in the heart of cattle country.
The new facility will focus biosafety level 3 agriculture (BSL-3Ag) research on dangerous livestock diseases such as African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and will focus its BSL-4 research on such deadly pathogens as the Hendra and Nipah viruses, which are zoonotic pathogens that can be transmitted from animals to humans and for which no treatment is available.
This week R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard dropped by the Northern Ag Network radio studios and talked with Russell Nemetz about this “Wreck Waiting to Happen”.
Bullard also says “the dangerous livestock diseases aren’t the only thing to worry about, we can’t forget about human errors.”
In 2008 the independent, U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a study and concluded that the DHS lacks evidence to conclude that FMD research can be done safely on the U.S. mainland.
CLICK HERE to read more about the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) being built in Manhattan, Kansas,
© Northern Ag Network 2015
