Well with hoof and mouth disease and mad cow disease, it is nice to know we still have Plum Island who attempts to avoid problems now plaguing England. I reproduce this item for your convenience, but you may wish to pull up under subject matter. Sarah Lee is having problems; no doubt some sabotage involved here for one thing sure, they had a new hot dog - Kosher Hot Dogs, which cost a little more but well worth the price. I noted during the holiday season, however there were none to be found. One must be very careful in buying food these days - I still wonder how horses in Kentucky acquired HIV and AIDS? This is somewhaat of a common disease; however, they do use horse serum for medical purposes. Wish I knew more about this stuff. Saba Interestin Item: Plum Island Animal Disease Center Click here for version for text and older browsers Plum Island Home Page About the Island Welcome to Plum Island, New York! Our job here is a big one. We work to protect farm animals, farmers and ranchers, the nation's farm economy and export markets... and your food supply. We developed this web site to show you how we do that�and how we make safety a priority at every step. We're proud of our role as America's first line of defense against foreign animal diseases. We're equally proud of our safety record. Not once in our 45 years of operation has an animal pathogen escaped from Plum Island. [Saba Note: Well, I wonder here....] And we're prepared to take on a new challenge if necessary. The federal government is considering expanding our scientific role to study foreign animal diseases that are also dangerous to people. How serious a threat could foreign animal diseases be if they were to infect American livestock? Consider foot-and-mouth disease of cattle. Controlling a single outbreak in this country could cost millions of dollars. If this disease became established, it would shrink our $11.5 billion export market for animals, meat and other and animal products in countries free of the disease. As producers tried to recoup their own losses, food prices could rise at the supermarket. In addition, hundreds of thousands of cattle, swine, deer and other animals might have to be slaughtered. In the decade after World War II, outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Mexico and Canada led Congress to establish USDA's Plum Island Animal Disease Center to keep America safe, but ready for the worst scenario�the introduction of this or other potentially devastating foreign animal diseases. Front entrance of main facility. The center is the only place in the country where certain highly infectious foreign animal diseases are studied, such as foot-and-mouth disease. Our job is to keep these diseases out, by finding quicker ways to diagnose them and by developing vaccines and other veterinary treatments. The Plum Island Animal Disease Center is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Our scientists and veterinarians are with two USDA agencies: the Agricultural Research Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. [Nice to think Gary Condit is on this committee and it is obvious some of this stuff is classified, top secret stuff, etc, etc, etc. SABA Note] ARS operations on the island are part of the agency's North Atlantic Area. The NAA encompasses 13 research locations from Maine to West Virginia. At this web site, you can find out more about the center's mission and about the scientists' accomplishments. You can also find out how our safety measures ensure that animal pathogens studied at the center cannot escape, and that the natural environment is protected. Plum Island has a rich history. You can also take a virtual tour of the island. And USDA is revamping its public visitor center so you can find out more about how the people who work at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center protect our food supply, our farmers, and our economy. � Plum Island Home Page | Top | Comments on web site
http://www.ars.usda.gov/plum/
