AP: US’s foot and mouth disease lab outgrowing its NY island home. Now where to build the new one?
The theme of this piece may be a little bit overwrought, but the story fascinates nonetheless. AP reporter Larry Margasak puts in his lede fears of a catastrophic outbreak of foot and mouth disease in American livestock should an old lab’s new home be anywhere near herds of susceptible animals. The story is full of info few will have ever encountered: the nature of the disease, the history of immense slaughters of healthy animals in earlier outbreaks around the world to stem the contagion, and the need to maintain very high security at any such research facility.
The Tracker suspects that one could make the US scientific repository for study of the virus safe almost anywhere. It is now on Plum Island, in the Long Island Sound where the Dept. of Homeland Security runs it (having taken the reins from the Dept. of Ag.). It needs a larger home than can be built there. Regardless whether a new place can or can’t be sure to keep the virus inside, it is deeply puzzling that several places under consideration are in cattle country. Why? Members of Congress already are looking into that. This story ought to turn up the heat even more.
-CP
