Foot and Mouth Disease

Dangerous animal virus on US mainland?

By Larry Margasak, Associated Press Writer
April 11, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is likely to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak.

Skeptical Democrats in Congress are demanding to see internal documents they believe highlight the risks and consequences of the decision. An epidemic of the disease, foot and mouth, which only affects animals, could devastate the livestock industry.

One such government report, produced last year and already turned over to lawmakers by the Homeland Security Department, combined commercial satellite images and federal farm data to show the proximity to livestock herds of locations that have been considered for the new lab. "Would an accidental laboratory release at these locations have the potential to affect nearby livestock?" asked the nine-page document. It did not directly answer the question.

A simulated outbreak of the disease -- part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called "Crimson Sky" -- 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. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses. In the simulation, protests broke out in some cities amid food shortages.

"It was a mess," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who portrayed the president in the 2002 exercise. Now, like other lawmakers from the states under consideration, Roberts supports moving the government's new lab to his state. Manhattan, Kan., is one of five mainland locations under consideration. "It will mean jobs" and spur research and development, he says.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-04-11-1445284742_x.htm

Homeland Security wins control over foot-and-mouth research

By Larry Margasak, Associated Press Writer
May 7, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers on Wednesday tentatively agreed that national security officials should fully control the expected transfer of research of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease from an offshore laboratory to the U.S. mainland near livestock.

The Bush administration requested the legal change, which would erode the traditional role of the Agriculture Department in deciding the safest location to research one of the world's most contagious animal viruses. The virus does not infect humans but could devastate livestock herds.

House and Senate conferees, negotiating a major farm bill, agreed to the administration's wishes to place the Homeland Security Department in full control of the transfer, according to two Senate sources who demanded anonymity because conferees were not ready to announce their agreements.

Under current law, the Agriculture secretary would issue a permit to move the research from a lab on isolated Plum Island, N.Y., only if he determined the move to be necessary and in the public's interest.

The conferees accepted the Senate's farm bill, which would direct the USDA secretary to approve the permit, so Homeland Security officials could move ahead with plans to build a new research facility on the mainland.

The House version of the same legislation would have left in place the agriculture secretary's discretion.

The Senate proposal was jointly requested by the departments of Agriculture and Homeland Security, said Erin Hamm, spokeswoman for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. The Senate plan would prevent the agriculture secretary under the next presidential administration from easily interfering with the lab's relocation to the mainland.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-05-07-1445284742_x.htm