Kansas’s new animal-disease lab faces years-long delays and technical faults before opening for high-containment research

The $1.25bn National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan remains unfinished three years after unveiling, hampered by technical faults delaying critical research on livestock diseases.

Kansas’s giant new animal-disease laboratory is still not ready for the work it was built to do, three years after its public unveiling, according to a recent report from the US Department of Agriculture’s inspector-general.

The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, a $1.25bn project intended to replace Plum Island and become America’s flagship centre for high-containment livestock research, is still being held back by technical faults including room sealing and air-pressure problems. Those deficiencies must be fixed before the laboratory can handle select agents such as foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever, the report says.

USDA has said it expects the problems affecting biosafety level 3 work to be resolved by spring 2027, at an estimated cost of $78mn. But it has not set a timetable for the additional repairs needed to bring the higher-security BSL-4 suites online for viruses such as Nipah and Hendra.

The delay has left the US without a live-foot-and-mouth research site since Plum Island stopped research in 2025, creating a gap in a programme that dates back to 1954. Science reported that an independent review last year found more than 100 obstacles to full operation, including missing animal gates and weak air-supply continuity.

DHS said in earlier material that construction and commissioning were complete, but the inspector-general concluded the facility was not properly configured for high-level animal disease work. Researchers say the lab remains vital for food security, even if it arrives late.