The United States Department of Homeland Security has awarded Kansas State University a $12 million grant for the Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases (CEEZAD), to be paid over the next six years. The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, being built in Manhattan, Kan., will replace the aging Plum Island facility, which is the federal government’s current location for animal disease research.

"This new Center of Excellence gives K-State the opportunity to build on our infrastructure and enable us to be even stronger leaders in this area," said Juergen Richt, principal investigator and CEEZAD’s director, Regents Distinguished Professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Kansas Bioscience Authority Eminent Scholar. "K-State has specialists in infectious diseases who know agriculture systems well, not only livestock but also other food sources including fish and poultry. We will hire new researchers to complement our existing expertise, but more importantly, we will collaborate with outstanding researchers from institutions all over the United States to best protect the nation’s food supply."

The center will develop and validate vaccines; create innovative devices to detect and diagnose threatening disease; and help implement systems to curtail human and animal disease threats. A specialized workforce will be trained to successfully defend the United States’ agricultural economy against agro-terrorism and emerging animal pathogens.

Kansas State will partner with Texas A&M University’s Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense Center to lead the Science and Technology Directorate’s efforts to involve university researchers in zoonotic and animal disease detection