In the Jurassic Park sequel "The Lost World" Dr. Ian Malcolm said, "Taking dinosaurs off this island is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas." Well, guess what? There was a decision made within the past year that, if followed through, will bring the gamut of some of the planet’s worst animal diseases from an island on the East Coast, to a university campus in Kansas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has determined that the 50-year-old Plum Island Animal Disease Center is to be closed by 2015 and relocated on the Kansas State University campus. A $450 million biosecurity level 4 facility is being planned for KSU. The USDA Homeland Security says Plum Island, a level 3 biosecure facility located off the coast of Long Island, has become too small for the work going on there and therefore is unfit to be upgraded to level 4. Level 3 means experiments are done on animal-to-animal infections. Level 4 would upgrade the experiments to animal-to-human transmissions. If such research is necessary, why does it have to be in the Midwest? Plum Island contains the viruses and bacteria that cause some horrendous diseases like hog cholera, equine plasmodium, hoof and mouth, mad cow, Texas fever tick; plus an array of bugs and parasites. It has cattle diseases from Africa that have never been seen in this country, perhaps the entire continent. And USDA is going to plop all that in the middle of livestock country. Why? I mean, on Plum Island the prevailing winds go seaward. If there is a disease escape from KSU, no matter which way the wind blows, it’ll settle on someone’s livestock. I see on the Internet that the assistant director of the yet-to-be-built KSU facility says the college, "is dedicated to protecting the nation's agricultural infrastructure through planning and training for threats, whether natural or intentional. The center coordinates interdisciplinary efforts in agricultural safety and security." That’s comforting. However, I’m sure there are similar goals on Plum Island. Although it has a decent 50-year safety record, there has been one incident of a breakout -- hoof and mouth disease in 1978. "But it never got off the island," supporters are quick to mention. Exactly. It stayed on an island. What happens if, or when, it gets out in landlocked country? There have also been whispers that Lyme disease and West Nile escaped off the island, but these have never been substantiated. Human error is always a threat. I’m convinced that all contingencies cannot be anticipated. Something eventually is going to get out. That’s probably why it was on an island in the first place, you’d think. Moving the animal disease research center to the heart of livestock country is a monumentally bad idea. Don’t tell me a breakout will never happen. I won’t believe you. Neither does Richard Blumenthal, attorney general in Connecticut, whose coastline is just eight miles from Plum Island. In August 2008, he told a press conference that this facility contains "the most dangerous pathogens and infectious diseases with no known cures or vaccines; and it would do that in a location that could not be worse in terms of security and environment." Four months after that news conference, the decision was made to move the disease center to Kansas. Texas, North Carolina and Georgia were also on the short list of potential new locations. It’s roughly about 200 miles from Manhattan, Kan., to Des Moines as the pathogen flies. That’s just too close for comfort.

Try and have a good week.

--kersh