What’s the worst thing that could happen from an outbreak at a top-security bio lab? According to the US Department of Homeland Security, over $4 billion of damage. And although it’s unlikely, outbreaks do happen.

The US wants to build a new ‘National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility’ to conduct research on livestock diseases at the highest level of security – biosafety level 4.

As the report website seems to be down at the moment, here’s a quote from it as detailed in the Kansas City Star:

The risk of an accidental release of a pathogen is extremely low, but the economic effect could be significant for all sites. Response measures to minimize risks and quickly contain any accidental release would also greatly reduce the potential economic loss.

At the moment there are no labs in the US for BSL-4 livestock work, says DHS. Existing government facilities on Plum Island, New York, are too small and have “an outdated physical structure that makes it unsuitable for zoonotic disease research that must be conducted at the highest level of biosafety”.

But, as AP has reported, a new environmental impact statement on possible locations says putting the new lab in Kansas or Texas could mean damage of over $4 billion in the unlikely even of an outbreak from the lab. This compares badly to the $2.8 billion cost of an outbreak from Plum Island.

“What the EIS concludes is that the likelihood of release of foot-and-mouth disease is extremely low,” says Jamie Johnson of the Office of National Laboratories (AP). “However, in the event that foot-and-mouth does get out, what does that mean to these sites?”

The possible sites for the new lab are:

South Milledge Avenue Site, Athens, Georgia

Manhattan Campus Site, Manhattan, Kansas

Flora Industrial Park Site, Flora, Mississippi

Plum Island Site, Plum Island, New York

Umstead Research Farm Site, Butner, North Carolina

Texas Research Park Site, San Antonio, Texas

The report doesn’t put any site forward as the best choice and Kansas is upbeat, despite AP’s take on things.

“If there’s a sigh of relief over here, it’s that there’s no strike, no barrier, no environmental threat that we weren’t aware of,” says Tom Thornton, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Bioscience Authority (Lawrence Journal-World and News). “We’re more than pleased to hear that.”

The Topeka Capital-Journal says lobbying for the lab is going to be intense. “We’ve got to be real aggressive,” says Thornton.