"With Foot and Mouth Disease and Mad Cow Disease racing across Europe it has become more important than ever for the U.S. to have the strongest animal disease research centers possible," said Harkin. "The Ames facilities are vital to our nation's efforts in the battle to reduce diseases in commercial animals, to reduce the danger of animal diseases hurting people and to lower the costs of animal diseases for meat producers and the consumer. We need to move as quickly as possible to modernize this facility which is crucial to the safety of our nation's agricultural industry."
"It's imperative that we modernize the National Animal Disease Center to keep pace with other countries," said Grassley. "The World Trade Organization is working on new regulations for the certification of diagnostic labs, such as the Ames facility. The existing facility will not meet WTO specifications if action isn't taken to modernize it. As a result, other countries won't recognize the strong research work that comes out of this lab."
"The impact of foot-and-mouth disease has been devastating. What is occurring in the United Kingdom could happen here in America." Boswell said. "Our country has been free of this disease since 1929, but we need to have adequate technology to address these problems. The NADC for animals in Ames, is the equivalent of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for humans in Atlanta. The NADC must have cutting-edge technology and a state-of-the-art facility so we can continue to have the best and safest food and fiber in the world."
USDA has been proposing to combine and modernize facilities in Ames for a number of years. The USDA master plan would enhance the efficiency and safety of the National Animal Disease Center (NADC), the National Veterniary Services Laboratories (NVSL) and the Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB), all located at separate sites in Ames. Recent situations such as the Vermont sheep diagnosed with transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), who are being euthanized at the NVSL, have brought home the urgency of guaranteeing that our nation's animal health infrastructure is up to date.
The Iowa legislators also expressed concern over a study funded in the Fiscal Year 2001 Agricultural Appropriations conference report which directed USDA to assess the scope of and need for the modernization project. The release of the report is required before $7 million in initial design funds can be . However, despite a March 1 deadline for the study and numerous assurance from USDA that the report will move forward quickly, it was only sent to the Secretary on Friday April . The report contains one option to complete the facility in 5 years and another to complete work in 10 years.
"We have worked for years now to ensure that the we had the best facilities possible in Ames," said Harkin. "Now more than ever we can see the need for top notch animal disease treatment and research facilities. We believe USDA is solidly behind this effort, however we need quick action to ensure this project is completed without delay.