April 11, 2008

 

FMD research relocation triggers fears of catastrophic outbreaks in US

 

 

Moving the foot-and-mouth-disease research facilities from an isolated island laboratory to the US mainland has raised concerns of a destructive disease outbreak as sceptical Democrats in Congress believes the transfer  the facilities puts the US livestock industry in great risk.

 

A government report obtained by the Associated Press and turned over to lawmakers by the Homeland Security Department along with its combined commercial satellite images and federal farm data show the proximity to livestock herds of locations that have been considered for the new lab. The nine-page document has a core question: "Would an accidental laboratory release at these locations have the potential to affect nearby livestock?" -- which was not directly answered.

 

Manhattan, Kansas is one of five mainland locations under consideration and Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kansas believes the transfer will "mean jobs" and spur research and development.

 

The other possible locations for the new National Bio-and Agro-Defence Facility are Athens, Ga.; Butner, N.C.; San Antonio; and Flora, Miss. The new site could be selected later this year, and the lab would open by 2014. The numbers of livestock in the counties and surrounding areas of the finalists range from 542,507 in Kansas to 132,900 in Georgia, according to the Homeland Security study.

 

Foot-and-mouth disease is so contagious and its virus can be carried on a worker's breath or clothes, or vehicles leaving a lab. The disease has been confined to Plum Island, N.Y., for more than a half-century - far from commercial livestock. The existing lab is 100 miles northeast of New York City in the Long Island Sound, accessible only by ferry or helicopter. Researchers there who work with the live virus are not permitted to own animals at home that would be susceptible, and they must wait at least a week before attending outside events where such animals might perform, such as a circus.

 

Though the White House assures that modern safety regulations are sufficient to avoid any outbreak, foot-and-mouth incidents in Britain have demonstrated that the disease can cause remarkable economic havoc - and its virus can escape from a facility.

 

In 2001, the British livestock sector was devastated by FMD as the government slaughtered 6 million sheep, cows and pigs. Last year, in a less serious outbreak, Britain's health and safety agency concluded the virus probably escaped from a site shared by a government research centre and a vaccine maker. FMD epidemics have occurred in Taiwan in 1997 and China last year and in 2006.

 

If even a single cow signals an outbreak in the US, emergency plans permit the government to shut down all exports and movement of livestock. Herds would be quarantined, and a controlled slaughter could be started to stop the disease from spreading.

 

Infected animals weaken and lose weight and dairy cows won't produce milk. They remain highly infectious, even if they survive the virus.

 

The Homeland Security Department is highly confident that it can safely operate the lab on the mainland, saying containment procedures at security labs have improved. Players in the livestock industry are divided: some say research ought to be kept away from cattle populations - and, ideally, placed where the public already has accepted dangerous research.

 

Dr. Roger Breeze, former director of the Plum Island Animal Disease suggested the facility could be safely located at the Atlanta campus of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, or at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., home of The United States Army Medical Research Institute for infectious diseases.

 

Another possibility, Breeze said, is on Long Island, where there is no commercial livestock industry. That would allow retention of most of the current Plum Island employees. However, Breeze says the relocation "seems a little odd" as safety programmes were outdated in the last 50 years.

 

The former head of the US Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service said Americans are not prepared for a foot-and-mouth outbreak that has been avoided on the mainland since 1929.

 

Experts say the horrific prospect of exterminating potentially millions of animals is "not something this country's ready for".

 

The Agriculture Department ran the Plum Island lab until 2003. It was turned over to the Homeland Security Department because preventing an outbreak is now part of the nation's biological defence program.

 

Plum Island researchers work on detection of the disease, strategies to control epidemics including vaccines and drugs, tests of imported animals to ensure they are free of the virus and training of professionals.

 

The new facility will add research on diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans. The Plum Island facility is not secure enough to handle that higher-level research which prompted lawmakers to set a deadline this week to turn over reports, otherwise, they will arrange a vote next week to issue a congressional subpoena.

 

The Homeland Security Department says laboratory animals would not be corralled outside the new facility, and they would not come into contact with local livestock. All work with the virus and lab waste would be handled securely and any material leaving would be treated and monitored to ensure it was sterilized.