Manhattan Mercury: Director hopes NBAF can help improve tests

Earlier this week the Director of the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, New York, discussed the advantages of having the NBAF in Manhattan.

Here’s the article:
“William “Bill” White, director of the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, New York, said he hopes one of the outcomes from the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at Kansas State will be to perfect pen-side tests that would allow medical professionals to determine whether farm animals are susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease.

“We want to continue to develop and validate new diagnostic tests that will allow us to maintain a cutting-edge profile,” White said at Monday’s kick-off meeting for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases, or CEEZAD, at K-State.

“The meeting included presentations by top experts in zoonotic diseases from around the world, among them White and K-State’s Juergen Richt, Regents Distinguished Professor in K-State’s College of Veterinary Medicine and a Kansas Bioscience Authority Eminent Scholar.

“One of the session’s central themes was a call for international cooperation against emerging disease threats.

“Veterinary scientists need to work together,” asserted Batfukh Zayat, laboratory head at the National Veterinary Research Institute in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. He termed the CEEZAD “a great opportunity to explore” techniques in the fight against zoonotic biosecurity threats. Researchers from Britain, France, South Africa and the United States made scientific presentations during the kickoff session, which was held at the Alumni Center.

“The Department of Homeland Security is replacing the Plum Island facility with NBAF at K-State.

“At the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, White leads a team of nearly 50 employees at the only facility in the United States allowed to work with the foot-and-mouth disease virus. His team diagnoses foreign animal diseases both domestically and internationally. The facility’s collaborations include working with medical officials in the Philippines on the Ebola-Reston virus; the Porcine teschovirus and new disease outbreaks in Haiti; lumpy skin disease in Afghanistan and Pakistan; as well as partnerships with Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Dominican Republic, Congo and Mongolia.”