Subject: Member Alert: Comment Deadline on Plum Island Move


R-CALF USA Member Alert


(This is not a News Release)


To: R-CALF USA Members and Affiliates


From: Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA CEO


Date: December 18, 2008


Subject: Deadline to File Comments Against Relocation of Plum Island Research

Facility to Manhattan, Kan., is Jan. 12, 2009

We are recommending that as many R-CALF USA members as possible file comments in opposition of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’) plan to relocate the Plum Island, N.Y., disease research laboratory to the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan. DHS’ filed notice of the public comment period in the Federal Register on Friday, Dec. 12, 2008, a copy of which can be accessed under the “Animal Health” link at www.r-calfusa.com. The deadline to file comments is Jan. 12, 2009.

DHS has named the new research facility the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) and has released its Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), available at http://www.dhs.gov/nbaf.

According to DHS, NBAF researchers will develop tests to detect foreign animal diseases, including foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), as well as zoonotic diseases (those transmitted from animals to humans) and also will develop vaccines or other countermeasures to “protect agriculture and food systems in the United States.” This means the researchers will be working with live strains of FMD.

R-CALF USA believes the current research facility located on Plum Island, N.Y., should be upgraded and refurbished so such lethal diseases have less potential to escape and infect the U.S. cattle herd. Manhattan, Kan., is in the heart of cattle-feeding country. If a leak were to occur, or if another tornado were to strike the KSU campus, there is a high likelihood that U.S. farmers and ranchers would have to slaughter their cattle just as cattle farmers in the United Kingdom had to do in the 2001 FMD outbreak. This would be financially ruinous to our industry.

Comments can be e-mailed to: nbafprogrammanager@dhs.gov.

Comments also may be sent via the U.S. Postal Service, by sending to:

NBAF Program Manager

PO Box 2188

Germantown, MD 20875-2188