January 14, 2004 Omaha World Herald (Nebraska) By Mark Kawar

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory had been stretched by increased mad cow testing in recent years, to the point that the lab had outsourced testing of all other diseases to labs around the country.

The Ames lab is the only facility in the United States that tests for mad cow.

Veneman said the renovation - and the president's decision to fund it - was not the result of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease being discovered in Washington state in December. An addition has been planned for years, she said.

"People are starting to realize how critical it is that we have facilities to research and diagnose animal diseases and really be responsive to the needs of the animal agriculture industry," Veneman said.

The project already has received $ 282 million in funding from the federal government and other sources. It is scheduled to be completed in 2007.

The USDA tested about 20,000 of the 35 million cattle slaughtered in the country last year. This year, the agency plans to double the number of tests for mad cow disease.[The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recommended this week that countries like the U.S. should test 7 or 8 million animals, not 38,000--BSE coordinator]

There currently are no plans to further increase the number of tests, Veneman said.

"Our actions are critical in maintaining confidence in our food supply," Veneman said.

Veneman said that the USDA is developing new standards to decide which cattle should be tested for mad cow, technically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Testing will target older animals, which are at the highest risk, animals that cannot stand on their own when brought to slaughter and animals that die before slaughter. The USDA is consulting with other countries in developing the standards.

The new Ames animal disease complex will bring together the USDA's National Animal Disease Center, the Center for Veterinary Biology and the National Veterinary Services Laboratories into a single, 1 million-square-foot complex.

The combination of the three divisions will increase efficiency and lead to more collaboration, the USDA said in a statement.

President Bush's request for federal funding, which will be formally announced in February, makes it extremely likely that the Ames project will be included in the budget and approved by Congress, said Rep. Tom Latham of Iowa, who spoke after Veneman.

He said that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as much as the threat of natural disease outbreaks such as mad cow, contributed to federal support for expanding the Ames complex. The attacks raised the possibility that terrorists could try to contaminate the nation's food supply or tamper with agriculture.