Digging Deeper...

Construction of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas, to replace the 1950s-era Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) on Long Island Sound, was nearing completion last spring when the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City featured it in its June 2020 Council Newsletter. At the time, the facility was on track to “achieve substantial completion of construction” – federal terminology for the point at which USDA has full access to the facility and is responsible for operating it. But COVID-19 had a different timetable. 

By Dennis McLaughlin, McLaughlin Writers LLC; Resources, commentary and insight for this article were provided Katie Pawlosky, NBAF Director of Communications   

REVISED NBAF TIMELINE

 At the outset of 2020, before anyone was fully aware of the emerging coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) and USDA were all aligned to achieve substantial completion of construction – a milestone signifying a new federal government facility is ready for occupation and initial operation – in December 2020. Until April 2020, construction had been on target to meet that deadline. “Then we were all handed a few figurative lemons in the form of a global pandemic,” wrote Katie Pawlosky, NBAF Director of Communications, in January 2021. 

The pandemic caused inevitable disruptions to labor, materials and equipment manufacturing and supply chain delivery throughout the year.  In December 2020, USDA and DHS S&T released a revised substantial completion of construction date. October 2021 is now the target.  If there is a silver lining in the delay, it is that these agencies now have a chance to include emergent technology and equipment upgrades developed since the initial NBAF design was approved.  

“As one may imagine, there have been many advances in laboratory and equipment since the facility design was completed in 2012,” said Pawlosky.

USDA and DHS S&T continue to assess and mitigate impacts to downstream milestones for the mission transition from Plum Island to NBAF.  “The revised schedule reflects the realignment of scope items to minimize COVID-19’s disruptions,” noted NBAF public affairs specialist Stephanie Jacques in a December 15, 2020 release, “There will be a delay in the overall mission transfer from the Plum Island Animal Disease Center to NBAF.” 

Originally scheduled for August 2023, the USDA mission transfer is now projected for December 2023.  “While challenges remain,” Pawlosky said, “DHS S&T continues to project that the construction and commissioning of NBAF under the new revised schedule will be covered within the current $1.25 billion estimated cost.”

NBAF SPOTLIGHTS RELIABILITY 

NBAF’s mission centers on protecting the U.S. from specific foreign livestock animal diseases. But it is also responsible for controlling and eliminating risks associated with NBAF facility operations. To achieve that, NBAF has hired a bio-risk management team to ensure its biosafety level-3 and -4 laboratories comply with regulations and industry standards.

This team is dedicated to managing and minimizing those risks, Pawlosky explains. “The goal of that team is to prevent accidental and intentional misuse or release of infectious material, also called biohazards.”  She goes on to say USDA has hired a team of individuals who bring with them the skills and expertise needed to accomplish that goal. “NBAF scientists and bio-risk management will work closely together as a team to accomplish critical research in a safe and secure environment.”

Dr. Chad Austin, NBAF’s bio-risk program management training coordinator, has extensive experience working in high containment laboratories and bio-risk management programs. He is developing and will manage the NBAF bio-risk training program that will be required for everyone who will work in and around secure containment areas where the biohazards will be located. Dr. Austin is also focusing on a new NBAF initiative: To make it a High Reliability Organization (HRO). “These organizations have high risk potential but a strong safety culture and an emphasis on planning to prevent major system failures,” Pawlosky says. 

HROs focus on solving small process failures to prevent large ones. These unique organizations accomplish this by empowering everyone at the institution to look for and address possible safety concerns before they become a large issue. They actively look for areas where there could be failure and determine how best to mitigate. This “focus on failure” as Austin puts it, is designed so that large-scale failure can be prevented.

“We are still defining what an HRO will look like at NBAF,” notes Pawlosky, in a March 20, 2021, release, “but we already know that it is an important part of the safety culture we’re developing; this is one of the many reasons why it is important to use the time before NBAF becomes operational for planning. 

ANIMAL HEALTH PROTECTION NETWORK

Protecting animal health is high on the list of priorities at USDA, ensuring that Americans have a safe and secure food supply and economy. When NBAF is fully operational in 2023, it will provide new safety capabilities for this U.S. animal health network. NBAF will have laboratories that operate at the highest possible biosafety level, called BSL-4, which will allow scientists to study the most high-consequence animal diseases in large livestock. This is a first in the U.S.  Currently, U.S. scientists have to rely on other countries’ BSL-4 facilities for this type of science. 

As part of a network of longstanding and safe animal health labs across the country, NBAF will benefit from the experience of skilled colleagues working in state-of-the-art facilities. One of those is the National Centers for Animal Health in Ames, Iowa, even larger than NBAF at 523 acres, which was built in 1961 and modernized between 2002-2009 for more than $463 million. That center’s highest containment level is a Biosafety Level 3-Ag. The “Ag” part means it is capable of housing livestock in the containment facility. It operates like NBAF since it houses programs for two USDA agencies — Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

 “Having these two agencies working together in Ames and here in Manhattan will help protect animal health through the research, diagnostics, training and vaccine development process,” Katie Pawlosky explains.

NBAF in Manhattan will also expand USDA’s collaborative research opportunities with education and private industry sectors. NBAF is situated in the Animal Health Corridor, a 300-mile hub stretching from Columbia, Missouri, to Manhattan, Kansas, with outposts in Iowa and Nebraska. The Corridor hosts the largest concentration of animal health companies in the world. 

“The scientists working with these companies have expertise in the full spectrum of animal health issues and solutions,” notes Pawlosky. “NBAF scientists hope to partner with these scientists to make research successes more commercially available, which will expand the protection against a variety of animal diseases.”

NBAF will create partnerships and unity among all types of scientists. At NBAF, multi-disciplinary teams of scientists with expertise in virology, pathology, molecular biology, immunology and other specialties will come together to tackle problems that one viewpoint alone cannot solve.

While the NCAH scientists already partner with those at NBAF’s predecessor, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York, it is NBAF’s expanded capabilities, collaborative opportunities and locality that will help  animal health experts achieve even greater strides in protecting the nation from animal diseases.

NBAF HIRING UPDATE

By Katie Pawlosky, NBAF Communications Director 

NBAF will employ approximately 400 people when the facility is fully operational. While positions will either be hired by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) or Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), employees from both agencies work collectively to operate as one NBAF. All vacancies are posted on www.USAJobs.gov and applications must be submitted through the website.

As of early May, more than 240 team members have been hired to support NBAF’s operations. Despite the pandemic, we continue to virtually interview and hire candidates. In fact, we have managed to onboard about 140 team members since we began teleworking in March of 2020! 

As a world-class scientific and research facility, a variety of positions are needed to support operations at NBAF. While scientists and lab techs might be the first positions that come to mind, we have a large and diverse workforce including administration, facilities management, security, IT, communications, and animal care. 

A majority of NBAF’s new scientist positions that will open in the coming months will start at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York. As research is relocated, those employees will transition to NBAF in Manhattan. In fact, that rapidly growing science team is already assisting with the NBAF science transition and stand-up.

We encourage anyone interested in a career supporting the mission of NBAF to follow our Twitter and LinkedIn accounts where we provide regular updates on job openings and much more.