A committee of experts will conduct a scientific assessment of the requirements for a foreign animal and zoonotic disease research and diagnostic laboratory facility in the United States. Specifically, the committee will:

1. Assess the threat posed to livestock by infectious diseases, such as zoonoses, current and emerging diseases, and bioterrorism agents. For this effort, the committee will rely upon a literature review of relevant articles and reports addressing foreign animal diseases, agricultural bioterrorism, emerging and zoonotic diseases. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide relevant materials to assist the committee.

2. Identify the U.S. laboratory and related infrastructure needed to counter the threat and meet the animal health, public health, and food security needs of the United States.

3. The committee will examine alternative approaches to providing the needed infrastructure, focusing on three options:

• Building the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility as currently designed;
• Building a scaled-back version of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (to be described by NRC/NAS);
• Maintaining current capabilities at Plum Island Animal Disease Center while leveraging Biosafety Level-4 laboratory capacity (for livestock) through foreign laboratories.

In evaluating alternatives, the committee will examine factors such as capacity and capabilities, advantages and liabilities, relative costs, and other considerations in relation to the mission needs of the DHS and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service and Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service to counter the known and emerging threats from bioterrorism, foreign animal diseases and zoonotic diseases. The committee’s report will identify pros and cons, discuss potential gaps, and provide consensus advice on how the laboratory infrastructure needed to address emerging foreign animal and zoonotic disease threats could be assembled.

The committee’s examination will address the capability needed to counter the identified threat, relative to the three options. The committee will not consider specific site locations as part of this examination.