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AMES, Iowa — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman has
announced that the Bush administration’s fiscal year 2005 budget
will include $178 million to complete renovation of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s new National Centers for Animal Health
here.
“When completed, the center will become the most modern and
best-equipped animal disease research facility in the world,”
Veneman said recently during remarks at the official groundbreaking
ceremony for the complex. “The work that is done
here is a crucial link to the overall effort to protect animal
agriculture.”
The Ames complex is USDA’s “flagship laboratory” for
large animal research and diagnosis. It includes the National Animal
Disease Center, the National Veterinary Services Laboratory, and the
Center for Veterinary Biologics. A 2001 report to Congress outlined
options for updating and renovating the complex, now referred to as
the USDA National Centers for Animal Health. Since that time, the
administration has worked with Congress on a plan to renovate the
facility.
“The request of $178 million by the President would represent
the final installment of the $460 million needed to fully renovate
these facilities,” Veneman said. “If approved by Congress, these
funds will permit us to fully complete this project by the end of
2007. We intend to use accelerated contract procedures and
construction techniques to meet this schedule.”
Veneman said the facility is more important than ever before in
the context of recent animal disease threats. For instance, the
National Veterinary Services Laboratory conducted the initial tests to
confirm the case of bovine spongiform encepholopathy from a dairy cow
in Washington state.
“Even though the ultimate confirmation was made in England,
we had the confidence in our own experts at the National Veterinary
Services Laboratory in order to make an immediate announcement and
respond quickly,” Veneman said.
When completed, Veneman said the National Centers for Animal
Health would include almost one million square feet of modern
facilities that will be biosafe, energy-efficient and will provide
state-of-the-art capabilities for research and diagnosis. It will
house in a single location a critical mass of scientists who are at
the top of their fields with programs across animal disease research,
diagnostics and biologics, making USDA better able to respond to
foreign animal diseases and bioterriorism.
Within USDA, the programs and facilities of the National
Centers for Animal Health are operated by the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service and the Agricultural Research Service. |
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