By SUSAN MYKRANTZ
Ohio Correspondent

WOOSTER, Ohio — When the Plant and Animal Biosecurity Facility opens its doors on the Wooster campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), it will be the crown jewel in The Ohio State University system, reported school sources.
The new facility, which is under construction, will be a state-of-the-art facility with maximum security containment features, according to Dr. David Benfield, OARDC associate director. Benfield told members of the local and state government, university and local community that the 27,537-square-foot facility is a unique building that was eight years in the making.

He said the attention to detail by the craftsmen involved in the construction is a critical component in providing researchers with the biosecurity they need to conduct research on disease-causing organisms in plants and animals. The building is the only one in Ohio and one of only five in the United States with a biosecurity level 3 (BSL-3) classification. This is the first level 3 lab in the university with the capacity to work with livestock.

In addition to two BSL-3 labs, the facility will include four BSL-3 ag-isolation rooms, which are needed to work with large animals, such as cows. Under federal guidelines, all facilities handling potentially infectious agents must adhere to strict procedures to ensure containment of these pathogens. Depending on the ease with which microorganisms can be transmitted, they are classified as BSL-1, BSL-2, BSL-3 or BSL-4 with BSL-4 carrying the highest risk of infection.

“This building will allow our researchers to look at infectious diseases in plants and animals in a way that they have not been looked at in the past,” Benfield said.

Annually, infectious diseases cause a financial loss of $30 million to plants and $18 million to livestock.

The estimated cost of the building is $22 million dollars, with funds coming from Ohio capital funds, OARDC funds and federal grants, reported Benfield. “A lot of innovative ideas have been included to bring the cost down to $22 million,” he said.

OARDC Director Dr. Steve Slack said as the economy becomes more global, controlling plant and animal diseases becomes more critical.

“As people are travelling more, the same is happening with diseases and viruses,” he said. “Problems such as Soybean Rust, and influenza have different varieties and can cause different problems. The Emerald Ash Bore (EAB), which came into this country from the Port of Detroit has devastated one of the most important hardwoods in the forest system.”

The EAB importation proves that nothing good comes out of Michigan, joked OSU President Dr. Gordon Gee, who is back in Ohio for his second term.

“At some universities, there is an old adage of ‘publish or perish.’ But at Ohio State, it is ‘partner or perish,’ he said. “We are too modest about what we do. We need to raise awareness about the good things we are doing. This is the center of the country and the center of our values. I believe that it will be the center of (America’s) economic vitality.”

OSU is the single largest driver of jobs in the state, according to Gee.

“Ohio is moving from a hardware economy to thoughtware,” Gee said. “This is thoughtware. In the end we don’t build buildings, we build ideas, we build programs, we hire great people.”

Ralph Regula, former Congressman from Ohio’s 16th District, was recognized for his efforts to secure funding for the project.

Regula said it was fitting that on a day an agreement was signed to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world, the community was celebrating the construction of a facility that would help eliminate world hunger.

“This facility will take great steps to deal with the threat of diseases and help meet the challenges of hunger and providing food to a world that is encountering a population explosion,” he said.
Rep. John Boccieri (D-16th Dist.) noted that during his travel around the world in his service as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, he has seen how other countries respond to the threat of plant and animal disease, compared to the strict protocol in place here in the United States.

He noted that this facility will further enhance those efforts to reduce the threat of potentially harmful pests and diseases.