Plum Island Animal Plastics Center in New York ( PIADCNY ) is a United States federal research facility dedicated to the study of animal diseases. This is part of the DHS Directorate of Science and Technology.
Since 1954, this center has the purpose of protecting American livestock from animal diseases. During the Cold War, a secret biological weapons program targeting livestock was conducted at the site, although it slowly declined until the end of the century. This program has been controversial for years.
Video Plum Island Animal Disease Center
Location and description
The center is located on Plum Island near the northeast coast of Long Island in the state of New York. During the Spanish-American War, the island was purchased by the government for the construction of Fort Terry, which was later disabled after World War II and then reactivated in 1952 for the Army Chemical Corps. The center consists of 70 buildings (many of which are dilapidated) at 840 acres (3.4 km 2 ). Plum Island has firefighters, power plants, water treatment plants, and its own security. Every wild mammal seen on the island is well managed to prevent the possibility of transmission of mouth and nail disease. However, since Plum Island was named an important bird area by the New York Audubon Society, it has managed to attract different birds. Plum Island has placed harem bird nests and blue squares across the island. In 2008, a new kestrel house was planned to be added.
Maps Plum Island Animal Disease Center
History
In response to epidemics in Mexico and Canada in 1954, the Army gave the island to the Ministry of Agriculture to establish a research center dedicated to studying foot and mouth disease in cattle.
The island opened to the news media for the first time in 1992. In 1995, the Department of Agriculture issued a $ 111,000 fine to save dangerous chemicals on the island.
Local Long Island activists prevented the center from extending to include diseases affecting humans in 2000, which would require the appointment of Biosafety Level 4; in 2002, Congress re-considered the plan.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2002 that many scientists and government officials wanted the laboratory to close, believing that the threat of both mouth and nail disease was so far away that the center was not worth the $ 16.5 million annual budget. In 2002, Plum Island Animal Disease Center was transferred from the US Department of Agriculture to the Department of Homeland Security of the United States.
In 2003, a whistleblower voicing concern about safety at the facility was fired by the contractor he worked for. He has discussed his concerns with the helpers for Sen. Hillary Clinton. The Judge of the National Labor Relations Board found that the contractor, North Fork Services, had discriminated against the discloser.
Diseases studied and outbreak
As a diagnostic facility, PIADC scientists studied more than 40 foreign animal diseases, including cholera pigs and African swine fever. PIADC runs about 30,000 diagnostic tests annually. PIADC operates the laboratory facilities of Biosafety Level 3 Agriculture (BSL-3Ag), BSL-3 and BSL-2. The facility's research program includes the development of diagnostic and biological tools for oral and nail disease and other livestock diseases.
Because federal law stipulates that live foot and lung disease viruses can not be studied on land, PIADC is unique because it is currently the only laboratory in the US equipped with research facilities that allow the study of foot and mouth disease.
Foot and mouth disease is highly contagious among strangled animals, and people who come into contact with it can take it to animals. The unintentional rise of the virus has caused catastrophic disasters and economic losses in many countries around the world. Plum Island has experienced its own epidemic, including one in 1978 where the disease was released to animals outside the center, and two incidents in 2004 where foot and mouth disease were released at its center. Foot and mouth disease was eradicated from the United States in 1929 (with the exception of stock in the center of Plum Island) but is currently endemic in many parts of the world.
In response to two incidents in 2004, New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Congressman Tim Bishop wrote to the Department of Homeland Security concerning their concerns about the safety of the center: "We urge you to investigate this alarming breach at the highest level, and to make us aware all progress. "
Lab 257 , a book by Michael C. Carroll, alleges a connection between Plum Island Animal Disease Center and the outbreak of three infectious diseases: West Nile virus in 1999, Lyme disease in 1975, and Dutch duck. outbreak in 1967.
Historic Buildings
Build 257
Building 257, located in Fort Terry, was completed around 1911. The original purpose of the building was to store weapons, such as mines, and the structure was designated as a Combined Joint Warehouse and Cable Building. Fort Terry underwent periods of activation and deactivation during World War II until the US Army Chemical Corps took over the facility in 1952 for use in the anti-animal biology war (BW) research. Converting Fort Terry to a BW facility requires building renovation 257 and other structures. When the work was almost complete in the laboratory and other facilities in the spring of 1954, Fort Terry's mission changed. Construction was completed at the facility on May 26, 1954, but Fort Terry was officially transferred to the USDA on July 1, 1954. At that time, scientists from the Animal Industry Bureau had worked in Building 257.
Build 101
The structure is a white T-shaped building measuring 164,000 square feet (15,200 m 2 ). It is located on the plum northwest plateau on the 10-acre site (40,000 m 2 ) where it is sustained by steep cliffs that lead to the sea. To the east of the building site is the old Plum Island Lighthouse.
Construction of the new Laboratory Building at Plum Building 101 began around July 1, 1954, around the same time as the Army's anti-animal bio-war (BW) facility at Fort Terry was transferred to the US Department of Agriculture. After the transfer, the facility on Plum Island is known as Plum Island Animal Disease Center. USDA $ 7.7. million facility building lab 101 was ordained on 26 September 1956. Prior to the opening of the building, the surrounding area was sprayed with chemicals to prevent insects or live animals from approaching the facility. At the time of opening, various tests using pathogens and vectors were performed on animals inside the building. Research on biological weapons at PIADC did not stop until the entire program was canceled in 1969 by Richard Nixon.
The modernization program in 1977 aimed to update Building 101 and other laboratories, Building 257, but the program was canceled in 1979 due to construction contract irregularities. The PIADC facility was essentially unchanged until modernization began in 1990. Two-thirds of the laboratory facilities inside Building 101 were renovated and operations from Building 257 were consolidated into Building 101. The 257 building was closed, and a major expansion, known as Building 100, was completed in the Building 101 in 1995. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Building 257 currently does not pose a health hazard.
Replacement facility
On September 11, 2005, DHS announced that the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center would be replaced by a new federal facility. The location of the new high-security veterinary laboratory, called the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), has been recommended for construction in Manhattan, Kansas. However, this plan has been questioned by the 2009 Government Accountability Office study, which states that claims by DHS that work on foot and mouth disease done on Plum Island can be carried "safely on the land" is "unsupported" by evidence. In 2012, DHS completed a risk assessment from a Kansas site called the proposed facility "safe and secure". However, the 2012 review of risk assessments by the National Research Council calls it "seriously flawed".
Activity
The PIADC mission can be grouped into three main categories: diagnosis, research, and education.
Since 1971, PIADC has been educating veterinarians in foreign animal diseases. The Center organizes several schools of Diagnostic Diseases of Foreign Animals each year to train federal and state veterinarians and laboratory diagnostic staff, military veterinarians and veterinary faculties.
At PIADC, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) work together; The DHS-Aid Advanced Development Unit partnered with USDA scientists, academics and industry to deliver vaccines and antivirals to the USDA for licensing and inclusion in the USDA National Veterinary Vaccine Stockpile.
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) conducts basic and applied research to further formulate the response to foreign animal diseases, including strategies for prevention, control and recovery. ARS focuses on developing vaccines and antivirals that act quickly for use during outbreaks to limit or stop transmission. Antivirus prevents infection when vaccine immunity develops. The main diseases studied were mouth and nail disease, classical pig fever, and vesicular stomatitis virus.
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) operates the Laboratory of Animal Disease Diagnostic, an internationally recognized facility conducting diagnostic testing of samples collected from US cattle. APHIS also tests animal and animal products imported into the US. APHIS maintains North American Vaccine Disease Foot-and-Mouth at PIADC and hosts the Foreign Veterinary Diagnostic training program, offering several classes per year to train veterinarians to recognize foreign animal diseases..
Research on biological weapons at PIADC did not stop until the entire program was canceled in 1969 by Richard Nixon.
Biological weapons research
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments