MANHATTAN, KANSAS —The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has completed the construction and commissioning of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas. NBAF is the first U.S. laboratory with biosafety level-4 containment, capable of housing large livestock animals, and one of only a few facilities in the world with these capabilities. With contract administration support from DHS’s Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) managed and completed the project under the $1.25 billion budget for the construction and commissioning effort, which spanned 17 years from initial planning to completion.
“The mission of the new facility is to protect the U.S. against transboundary, emerging, and zoonotic animal diseases that threaten the food supply, agricultural economy, and public health,” said Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov, DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology. “Since 2005, S&T and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have collaborated on the requirements for this next-generation science facility that will replace DHS’s Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), a biosafety level-3 facility in New York that is more than 65 years old.”