Georgia's bid to become the home of a major animal research laboratory gets a final public airing today as federal officials prepare to choose between the University of Georgia and five competing sites in other states later this year.

In Athens, debate over the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) turns on the economic and research benefits versus the risk of housing contagious viruses near people and livestock.

Billed as the animal equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the proposed NBAF's primary purpose is to study non-native animal diseases considered biological threats. These are diseases that can spread quickly and, in some cases, sicken or even kill humans.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security, the coordinating agency, say the $451 million, state-of-the-art lab will have safety features that will all but eliminate risk to nearby residents and livestock.

But an Athens group claiming 2,000 supporters argues the risk of a catastrophic accident, however slight, trumps any benefit. The group, For Athens Quality-of-Life, has led a petition drive and aired advertisements on local media.

"I don't think it's possible to design a facility that is 100 percent risk free," said Kathy Prescott, the group's co-founder.

Georgia officials counter that the public benefits of learning how to contain outbreaks and developing protective vaccines —- NBAF's primary goals —- outweigh potential dangers.

"An estimated 50 million people acquired [animal] diseases around the world between 2000 and 2005, and roughly 75,000 ... died," said David Lee, UGA's vice president of research. "There is a far greater threat if we don't do something to protect ourselves."

Georgia officials also argue that putting NBAF just 65 miles from the CDC will greatly enhance the state's appeal as a research hub.

"It's important we win this," said Lee. "Winning this facility in the face of a national competition will send a signal out that there is a lot going on in Georgia."

Athens, meanwhile, faces stiff competition from five other states, three of which have offered more generous financial incentives.

Private-public partnerships in Texas, Mississippi and Kansas have tendered incentives worth about $100 million each, four times Georgia's $25 million offer.

Michael Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance, a major backer of Georgia's bid, acknowledged the funding disparity but still gives Georgia "even odds."

"They may be trying to compensate for other shortcomings in their proposals," said Cassidy of the other incentive packages.

What role politics will play remains unclear. The Associated Press recently reported that the Mississippi site, home to U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, made DHS's cut, even though it had scored lower than some of the 18 sites originally vying for consideration.

Rating the sites

Since the finalists were named last summer, DHS has found strengths and weaknesses at each location. It developed a grid that appeared to rate each site comparably —- with one exception.

DHS found a lower public health risk at Plum Island, N.Y., an 840-acre island off the northeast tip of Long Island that now houses the government's principal research station for foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious virus that can decimate cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle and pigs.

DHS said the island, which DHS added to the mix after the other five finalists were selected, created a natural disease barrier.

NBAF will include two major laboratory buildings and four outbuildings surrounded by a lighted security fence, DHS said. One building will house small-scale vaccine research. DHS said the complex will have the look and feel of a 1,600-student high school or a 400-bed hospital.

In Georgia, the four-year construction project would bring 661 directly related jobs and 371 associated jobs worth $150 million. State and local tax revenue would amount to $14.6 million, according to DHS. After completion in 2014, NBAF would employ an estimated 326 people, with an annual payroll of about $27 million. UGA officials would donate 67 acres of pastureland south of the main campus, adjacent to the state botanical gardens.

DHS found the proposed site workable, but noted new buildings would dramatically alter the pastoral landscape. Traffic congestion would worsen without improvements to roads, it said, and the site needs new water lines costing $3.7 million, a cost DHS would not assume.

Foot-and-mouth risks

While discounting the risk of catastrophic failure, DHS said Athens' warm climate and abundant wildlife posed a "significant opportunity" for the spread of three viruses to be studied at NBAF —- foot and mouth, rift valley fever and nipah virus.

Foot-and-mouth disease, which has caused billions of dollars of damage in Europe and Asia, sickens animals quickly and can damage the food supply.

In Georgia, an unmitigated outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at NBAF could cost local industry $154 million and the nation $3.1 billion in lost foreign trade, according to DHS.

Rift valley fever, found in Africa, harms livestock and can sicken humans. It is seldom fatal, but can be transmitted by mosquitoes.

DHS officials found that Athens' temperate climate, a mosquito breeding ground, could provide a "sustainable reservoir" for rift valley fever, increasing the likelihood that the virus could spread.

Nipah virus, found in Asia, is fatal in humans. But transmission to people is relatively rare and appears to require direct contact with an infected animal. Nonetheless, DHS officials noted that an abundance of wildlife around Athens could give the virus a viable host.

The "what if" scenarios scare Prescott and her husband, Grady Thrasher. They own a home 2 1/2 miles from the proposed site.

"You are just tempting fate by putting it in the middle of a college community in an area where there is wildlife," said Thrasher.

UGA's Lee said that Plum Island, opened in 1954, made sense in an era when lab safety was more limited. Today's facilities, Lee said, are designed with multiple layers of backup.

"The average citizen is at far greater risk getting in their automobile and driving to work in the morning, getting in an airplane, going to a mall where a crazed gunman might shoot them, going to a hospital where there are 100,000 deaths a year from hospital infections," said Lee. "These are real risks."

IF YOU GO

> What: Open house and public hearing on NBAF

> When: Today —- 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m.

> Where: Center for Continuing Education, 1197 S. Lumpkin St., Athens

> Web site: www.dhs.gov/xres/labs/editorial_0762.shtm

 Staff
Map locates proposed biodefense site adjacent to the State Botanical Garden in Athens. Inset map of Georgia shows Athens and Atlanta.