The Plum Island Animal Disease Center is being replaced by a brand-new facility in Kansas. The federal government continues relocating the animal disease laboratory from Plum Island, New York, to the new National Bio and Agro Defense Facility, or NBAF, in Manhattan, Kansas. Steve Witte, director of NBAF, says that all research activities have been gradually transferred from Plum Island, New York, to NBAF in Manhattan, Kansas.
Witte says that the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, will help take some of the workload until NBAF is fully operational and the entire mission has been transferred.
Witte says that Plum Island was limited in the scope of work it could perform and had simply outlived its usefulness, and an update was needed.
Established in 1954 to study highly contagious livestock diseases, the Plum Island Laboratory operated for decades under the USDA before transferring to the Department of Homeland Security in 2024. This facility update marks the transition from an aging facility to a new one that will boost animal research and better protect U.S. livestock.
