Bush wants to bring deadly livestock virus to heart of livestock country
Erik says: "The Bush administration is planning to move its primary foot-and-mouth research lab to the continental United States. Foot-and-Mouth, you will recall, is incredibly contagious and has several times led to enormous livestock extermination campaigns to halt the spread of the disease. Yet, believe it or not, one of the top contenders for the research site is Kansas. And, if that’s not enough, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas actually wants the lab built in his state — 'It will mean jobs,' he says. I’m trying to persuade myself that this entire article isn’t actually a piece done by the Onion."
One such government report, produced last year and already turned over to lawmakers by the Homeland Security Department, combined commercial satellite images and federal farm data to show the proximity to livestock herds of locations that have been considered for the new lab. "Would an accidental laboratory release at these locations have the potential to affect nearby livestock?" asked the nine-page document. It did not directly answer the question.LinkA simulated outbreak of the disease — part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called "Crimson Sky" — ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation's National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses. In the simulation, protests broke out in some cities amid food shortages.
the latest
latest episodes
I nominate "Brownie" as the project leader.
That is an idiot idea. Google "Pirbright Laboratory" for how the UK learnt about this the hard way.
I imagine the pitch of this idea to the white house went a bit like,
"let's put American research back into America!"
"SOLD! there's a man that talks sense!"
Jobs:
Jobs building the facility,
Jobs running the facility,
and eventually jobs incinerating millions of heads of cattle all around the USA.
It's a "win-win" situation!
They can't possibly be this stupid. It simply isn't possible, I refuse to believe it.
Of course they're that stupid. What would lead anyone to think otherwise?
Going vegan looks better and better all the time. Too bad I love BBQ so.
What better place to put such a facility than where test subjects are so readily available?
"the simulation's National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets..."
Just creepy. Makes me think of certain, other historical Armies that were tasked with making killing more efficient and could save themselves from wasting ammo...with the help of corporate innovators like I.G. Farben...
*shudder*
The interesting thing is that there is a vaccine for the varieties of foot and mouth. But the US can't export meat from vaccinated livestock.
Sure, going vegan does sound good. Until you catch Mad Tofurkey Disease, which is caused by mysterious proteins called prioffs.
Scientists believe this terrible malady emerged in New Guinea through the funeral rituals of vegan cannibals feasting on hufu.
Not to worry, the National Guardsmen and their bullets will be overseas. I guess it's back to hammers and spears, and pressganged convicts.
The astute reader may notice that there are several labs researching human contagious diseases located in the continental United States.
Remember when we all died from Anthrax, Bird Flu and Ebola?
Chill out.
hoof and mouth is no joke. That is one demon-genie you do NOT want out of the bottle. Don't forget the recent British lesson.
Unless of course an outbreak of hoof and mouth supposedly done by bin Laden proved the final justification for population thinning by starvation and permanent martial law. .....NAHHH! Cheney is above that kind of thing.
No, no, Erik's got it completely wrong.
This facility isn't bringing foot-and-mouth disease to Kansas, it's bringing every animal and zoonotic disease to Kansas.
When asked about safety concerns, Senator Roberts replied, "The citizens of Raccoon City have nothing to fear".
At this point (actually from 2001 onward) we should just do exactly the opposite of what George W Bush suggests!
For the good of America! It's our patriotic duty.
Tommy,
Eggplant. It cooks like meat. Grill it, fry it, broil it.
I'm no vegan, but I do love me eggplant/potato/onion/pepper, all vegetables that can be cooked like meat.
Oh man...
As a Kansan, all I can say is, "No, no, no, no, no..."
Wow.
I cannot WAIT for this administration to get out of the White House...
And #13 Takuan... You read my mind.
Plum Island already exists - The article says the current facility isn't secure enough for heightened research, but doesn't go very much into what would be involved in expanding the existing labs. The only mention is of the expense of a site only accessible by ferry or 'copter, however that infrastructure is already in place, and being used. Why build entirely new labs in a possibly less secure site, when we could enhance what's already there?
Besides, where would Hannibal Lecter get to go for vacation if we close Plum Island?
Although this seems like a small thing, I believe this is mostly about punishing blue states by ensuring that not one single government facility is located there. If Plum island were suddenly to pick itself up and move 100 miles from Charleston SC, the facility would stay.
ctlly, th ppl wh stdy nml scnc lv n th mdwst, nt th csts. Thnk y #12 fr yr cmmn sns. nd t thnk sm ppl r s ptght bt sch nn-ss? Wh crs tht t s n Knss? WTF?
Bsds, Ft nd Mth s nly cntgns t thr nmls, nt t hmns. Scnc ppl, scnc, nt crzd psych pnns tht rft sns.
Actually, if you believe in the theory of population control... this makes a lot of sense.
Yay, just what we need. Another Plum island. Only it's in the midwest, rather than the eastern coast.
I'm sorry, but regardless of politics, this is an idiotic idea.
Well, I think replacing Plum Island with ANYTHING is a good idea. Plum Island has had a pretty bad record of biocontainment failures. The heart of the problem is that Plum Island wasn't built as a high-level biocontainment facility. It is also old, just like Pirbright(albeit, likely better maintained). Not to mention, Plum Island ain't too far away from a whole lot of people and subject to storm surges which can flood the facility(bad). But this still does not justify putting a biosafety level 3 lab near livestock. It would make more sense to put the facility in the middle of the desert, where no contact with domestic or wild animals is possible.
Malcolm,
Why do you read BB? Every comment that you have ever made has been about how the post is wrong or how the commenters are idiots. How about saying something nice for a change?
he's rabid?
I'm a card-carrying Bush-basher who wouldn't be unhappy to see Kansas nuked from orbit for several different reasons, but I have to say that this is the most-ridiculous thread I've ever read on BB. The attitudes on display here are more prejudicial than anything you're likely to hear from Rush, O'Reilly, or Coulter.
You people know that it is possible to build a laboratory that handles dangerous materials and operate it safely, right? And that not everybody in Kansas is a dumbass hayseed who can't be trusted not to gargle with bug spray?
I'd suggest staying the hell away from the really scary places, like the Hanford nuclear reservation.
Prejudice and stereotyping: "It's OK when we (paleoliberals) do it."
the idea is under fire, not the quaint native personnel
@ #27: ...I don't care if you're a Communist from Mars, it's a stupid place for this sort of thing.
Like Morehuman said, it would be a better idea to put such a facility in the middle of a desert. Far, far away from a potential massive biological disaster.
So, I'm sure everyone here has the required academic credentials to assess the risk of carrying out this type of research within 100 miles of a cattle ranch.
Right?
Let's see the numbers.
heres one
March 26, 2008
Bidding War for Biowarfare Labs
The Germs Next Door
By STAN COX
What would it take to convince you that your town should play host to the world's most feared human and animal pathogens? Believe it or not, five states are locked in fierce competition over a proposed bioterror lab that would have them doing just that.
In 2002, the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was given control of Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York. Now DHS is seeking a home in the heartland for a National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) that would take over Plum Island's work, along with its potent microbial cultures. The fact that many diseases are now known to jump between humans and animals, combined with this decade's terror-fixation, has led the federal government to convert the agricultural problem of sick livestock into the national-security problem of bioterrorism.
Do I hear a bid?
Lying off the east end of New York's Long Island, Plum Island (which was under the Department of Agriculture until 2002) is the only place in the nation where scientists have previously been allowed to handle the pathogens that cause foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, Rift Valley fever, African swine fever, and other horrific maladies that, if let loose on the mainland, could cause billions in agricultural losses and even threaten human
article continues at Counterpunch
I think Dugway Proving Grounds would make a fine spot
"The Hot Zone details a 1989 Ebola crisis that occurred not in the forests of Africa but in Reston, Virginia, only 15 miles from Washington. It all started at the Reston Primate Quarantine Unit, run by a company that imports and sells monkeys for use in research laboratories. When an unusual number of deaths were recorded among a shipment of monkeys that had recently arrived from the Philippines, tissue samples were sent to a U.S. Army research center.
"There a technician identified the strands as either Ebola Zaire or something very close to it. Even more alarming, an incident at the Reston building seemed to confirm that this virus, unlike the African one, could be transmitted through the air. Frantic phone calls were made to Virginia health authorities and to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The Reston building was, in Army parlance, a 'hot zone,' an area that contained lethal, infectious organisms. An Army team, wearing space suits, killed the 450 surviving monkeys by lethal injection, and the cadavers were placed in plastic bags for safe disposal. Before the building was boarded up, the Army sterilized every square inch of the interior...Eventually it became apparent that the Ebola Zaire strain at Reston was harmless to humans. Yet the virus is considered to be a continuing menace. 'A tiny change in its genetic code,' Preston writes, 'and it might zoom through the human race.'"
Marburg
"This virus was first documented in 1967, when 31 people became ill in the German town of Marburg, after which it is named, as well as in Frankfurt am Main and the then Yugoslavian city of Belgrade. The outbreak involved 25 primary infections, with 7 deaths, and 6 secondary cases, with no deaths. The primary infections were in laboratory staff exposed to the Marburg virus while working with monkeys or their tissues. The secondary cases involved two doctors, a nurse, a post-mortem attendant, and the wife of a veterinarian. All secondary cases had direct contact, usually involving blood, with a primary case. Both doctors became infected through accidental skin pricks when drawing blood from patients.
The outbreak was traced to infected African grivets of the species Cercopithecus aethiops taken from Uganda and used in developing polio vaccines. The monkeys were imported by Behringwerke, a Marburg company founded by the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Emil von Behring. The company, which at the time was owned by Hoechst, was originally set up to develop sera against tetanus and diphtheria.
In 1975, three people in Johannesburg city of South African were infected by the Marburg virus by a man returning from Zimbabwe, resulting in one death. Two similar cases in 1980 and 1987 occurred in Kenya after European visitors went to Kitum Cave. Both later died. The next major outbreak occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998 to 2000, where 128 of 154 cases were fatal. [9] This outbreak originated with miners in Durba and Watsa in Orientale, Congo."
Eight children hospitalized in Russian smallpox scare
June 20, 2000
Web posted at: 4:19 a.m. EDT (0819 GMT)
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (CNN) -- Eight children were hospitalized with a mild form of smallpox after playing with discarded vaccine vials they found in a Vladivostok garbage bin, authorities said.
The youths, ages 11 to 14, found the vials in a dump near the Vladivostok Epidemiological Center. Then they mixed the powder from the vials and sprinkled each other with the mixture, medical inspector Dmitry Maslov said on Monday.
"The children have contracted a mild form of smallpox, but the infections aren't putting their lives in danger and they can't be spread to others," Maslov said. They are suffering fever and discomfort associated with smallpox vaccinations but should be able to go home in a few days, he said.
pages and pages of biowar nastiness;
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/biowar.html
go on,read it, just read part of it. OK, just the parts from 1950 onwards then....trust me
# 12 Had it right -- We ALREADY have a number of research facilities throughout the US in which VERY dangerous diseases are researched. Obviously it has to go somewhere.
Are you going to post the screenplay to The Andromeda Strain, too?
In other infectious disease news, it seems that a Japanese researcher has been dumping genetically modified E. coli into public drains. Wasn't this a Korean blockbuster?
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080411p2a00m0na018000c.html
The point being that secure facilities don't stay that way. You wouldn't put the childhood diseases research lab in the middle of a kindergarten. Don't put the cattle disease lab in the middle of cattle country.
note the language in that article:
"Around December, a student discarded plates that contained genetically modified E. coli bacteria as general trash," Kuno told the Mainichi.
However, the professor denied that he instructed the student to do so, saying, "It is true that my lack of instruction is tantamount to silent approval. I thought that the discharged material was safe. My supervision was lacking."
no Pinky, "The Andromeda Strain" was what we call "fiction", you see. The items I posted are called "real". Do try to keep up.
You mean that wasn't a documentary? I stayed drunk for nine years to keep myself acidotic!
DearPooklord:
The question is not that biowar and hot labs for human and animal plagues need exist, the question is do you trust the brain-dead, venal, lying filth that is making the decision as to where to put them?
no Antinous, that part was actually right. Your turn to buy tonight.
"Excellency... it is difficult.....AUGGH"
- CAPTAIN CLARK TERRELL
You know, I try not to become a complete conspiracy theorist, but stuff like this pushes me closer to the edge...
---
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/world/europe/07cnd-britain.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
LONDON, Aug. 7 — There is a “strong probability” that the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain was caused by viruses that escaped somehow from a pair of veterinary laboratories where vaccines are made, a government report said today.
The disease was found in cattle on a second farm in southern England today, and 102 animals from that farm were slaughtered, British agricultural officials said.
That farm, and the first farm where the disease was confirmed, are both within a few miles of the laboratories, the government-run Institute of Animal Health and Merial Animal Health, a commercial facility run by a subsidiary of Merck & Co., the American pharmaceutical maker.
---
Well, if there is a break out, maybe we can send some Blonde Haired Blue Eyed Al Qaeda to set off a suitcase nuke to sterilize the area.
p.s., if you are for population control, why don't you lead by example.
The government has almost buried it, but poor containment at Plum Island, off the coast of Lyme, CT, was responsible for one of the most serious disease outbreaks in American history. Experiments using tics as a disease vector to infect livestock was responsible for what is now known as Lyme Disease, a very serious illness affecting a large number of people every year. Oops.
Hey! I've got an IDEA! Let's put it in the White House! That's high security! And this is a completely safe lab, so why would they complain?
No room? Put it in Crawford, Texas! Plenty of room there. I hear there's a nice plot of land that Cindy Sheahan was trying to buy near the Bush ranch!
@#46 Jonro:
Funny that wikipedia doesn't mention that. Must be that government coverup, huh?
Sadly as a Kansas native I know that my homestate can be a dumping ground for lots of governmental research facilities that most people would rather not know about.
In fact, I'm surprised Kansas isn't featured as Ground Zero in more zombie, vampire and mutant movies.
Wow. It amazes me sometimes how there can be so many intelligent people on boingboing debating for what seems to me to be common sense. I'll reiterate what everyone else (who seems to grasp the obvious) has already: If you're researching deadly contagious human diseases, you don't put your lab in downtown 'Metropolis'. Thusly, if you're researching animal diseases, you stay as far away from major animal popuations as possible. ESPECIALLY those in the food chain. The US government is historically poor at source control. Does anyone remember the Texas Tech University prof. who was found guilty of fraud and improper shipping? They originally thought he had stolen vials of Anthrax, Plague, Small Pox, but actually he just purposefully fudged some numbers and shipped them some cheap way. "No, not priority mail, just standard - it's only deadly diseases."
@48 - It very well might be that government cover-up, wikipedia does mention the controversy surrounding possible biological warfare research.
@14 - ROFLMAO - You're probably right too.
@ Bonnie: That's because you guys have Superman.
"If you're researching deadly contagious human diseases, you don't put your lab in downtown 'Metropolis'."
This point's been brought up before, but have you noticed where the CDC is located?
OMG, this isn't funny. I live in Kansas.
What'll happen is it'll go out to Western Kansas, and they'll court the desparate immigrants who don't get hired by the meatpacking plants or construction companies. A goodly amount of these workers will be illegal, so no health or other benefits will need to be brought into play.
hmmm. meatpacking plants.....illegal workers......no records......
First of all, this isn't that "new" a concept. There is at least one level 3 lab in Oklahoma I know of, not sure about Kansas, though it is not a center for research on livestock diseases in particular. Also, these diseases aren't as rare as you might think. Cutaneous anthrax cases in humans happen once in a while in the midlands, especially around cattle, and that stuff is handled in much lower level labs (note the distinction of cutaneous here).
Done properly these types of labs really aren't a threat. I work with some computer systems that get installed in rural and state health labs, and once they go into a level 3 they don't come out. At least not without being sterilized to the point of non-function. Really, with the right protocols these aren't dangerous. It's a trade off between absolute security and discovering valuable knowledge to act as a preventative.
Also, in case there is an issue with it being in the midlands, it doesn't mean that our people aren't well trained in this stuff. Go to APHL in May and you'll meet some smart people from the midwest that I would trust with this stuff. Also, it's better to actually be researching these things and have secure facilities for doing it than to be caught off guard later and have to take over some state health lab and start from scratch. Again it's a trade off.
Where would you rather they do this research? A long way away from where the infection is most likely to occur anyway? What about being responsive and having the best trained staff close to the most critical areas?
I note no one mentioned that the actual mortality rate in animals from foot and mouth is somewhere around 2-5%. The main reason the herds in the UK were slaughtered?
Lowered milk production. They weren't going to be as profitable.
is that indeed the case, Invictus? Are you over-simplifying?
@#56, Invictus: This may come as a shock to you, but cattle are frequently slaughtered merely for money even when they're not infected with foot-and-mouth disease.
Well said Invictus - F&M isn't particularly dangerous to have around, it just reduces the value of animals who have it. But that's all that matters now of course - the economics. Soon Wales will be bereft of badgers because of their alleged link with the spread of bovine TB. Doesn't matter though, as long as farmers get their money and supermarkets their cheap milk. I'm not sure why Britain doesn't just plough up the entire country, farm the bits that can be farmed and pour concrete over the rest. F**k it, it's only nature.
I only found one astute comment in all of these:
[Lonny]"The interesting thing is that there is a vaccine for the varieties of foot and mouth. But the US can't export meat from vaccinated livestock."
If anyone would just ask WHY?, you might get out of panic mode and understand that this is a bogus issue and the problem could be solved (and all danger removed) by vaccinating all animals.
What's standing in the way of that? Agrobiz corporate profits.
The British cattle in the Foot and Mouth outbreak were slaughtered due to the way international trade is set up modeling the prisoners dilemma.
eg. countries where Foot and Mouth is not endemic a) don't want to pay for vaccines b) use the fact their herd is not inoculated as a reason to ban imports from places where the disease occurs.
so although in prinicple we could have let the disease run its course and live with the loss in value of the meat, or deploy the proven vaccine and halt the outbreak that way - we then couldn't export beef to disease-free Europe or have a credible excuse to block cheap beef imports from Africa.
Hence the mass slaughter.
@57, Takuan:
Wikipedia:
Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have resulted in the slaughter of millions of animals, despite this being a frequently non-fatal disease for adult animals (2-5% mortality) (...) The destruction of animals is primarily to halt further spread, as growth and milk production may be permanently affected, even in animals that have recovered. (...) Critics of current policies to cull infected herds argue that the financial imperative needs to be balanced against the killing of many animals[28], especially when a significant proportion of infected animals, most notably those producing milk, would recover from infection and live normal lives though with reduced milk production.
mmmm..... I suspect the Vegans are behind all this
I don't understand why agribusiness would profit by NOT vaccinating. Explain, please.
I think #61 has it
Missed that.
all this talk of meat...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM