Location: Operations
2025 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Develop the workforce needed to for the scientific staff at NBAF through implementation of research projects, training programs and other collaborations.
Approach
There is a shortage of qualified scientists, including the availability of doctors of veterinary medicine (DVM) with a Ph.D degree, to conduct animal health research at the NBAF when the facilities become available in 2022. This will be addressed by specifically training scientists in the following seven core scientific disciplines: pathology, virology, immunology, entomology, epidemiology, microbiology, and computational biology. The objective and desired outcome is a mechanism to ensure a viable and qualified scientific workforce is available to implement a program to recruit and train scientists with expertise in biodefense research, with a focus on foreign and emerging animal diseases, including dangerous zoonotic pathogens. The mechanism for training scientists in biodefense research will be established in collaboration with the guidance of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges. ARS does not presently have high containment facilities (BSL-3E, BSL-3Ag,and BSL-4) to train biodefense research scientists in Manhattan, Kansas. (However, through collaboration with Kansas state University, BSL-3Ag laboratories are available.) Therefore, the research projects needed to obtain a doctoral degree in one of the seven core scientific disciplines listed in the previous section will be conducted at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), Orient Point, New York, and/or the research facilities of collaborators contributing to the implementation of the ARS biodefense research programs.
Progress Report
Objective 1. Develop the workforce needed for the scientific staff at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) through implementation of research projects, training programs and other collaborations.
Within this project NBAF created a short course for students to become exposed to research animal support particularly in biocontainment. NBAF’s training coordinator has had regular recurring meetings with Texas Tech University’s training specialist, for the purposes of planning and preparing the training content. The course development includes basic biosafety/biocontainment principles, animal husbandry principles, animal welfare and anesthesia principles, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and animal welfare regulations, etc. The general objective of this agreement has been met, which is to increase awareness and expand practical training opportunities for careers within agricultural and biocontainment research with livestock.
With Kansas State University, we continue working actively in developing a Biological Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) Training Program for Research Support Personnel. In order to staff the ARS’s biocontainment research laboratories there is a need to create a highly trained workforce that is capable of working at BSL-3 and higher levels. The workforce needs to include research support staff and collaborators. This program will expose BS/MS/DVM, PhD level personnel to a BSL-3 (high containment) research environment as potential career choice; to increase awareness of general biosecurity practices when dealing with select agents; and to incorporate aspects of cyber vulnerability prevention in the laboratory.
The Indiana University of Pennsylvania Research Institute has developed a certificate program to increase the number of qualified biosafety professionals needed to support the life sciences sector. The need for biosafety professional has expanded with the growth of the bioeconomy. As the bioeconomy grows life science institutions will need to address biosafety and biosecurity concerns but often lack the necessary tools, capacity, and research support staff such as employing a competent biorisk management professional. The goal of the program is to prepare graduates that will be competitive for entry-level biosafety and/or biorisk management positions in many different fields.
Accomplishments
1. Training activities. The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) and the training specialist at Texas Tech University continue in the execution of a short course covering basic biosafety/biocontainment principles, animal husbandry principles, animal welfare and anesthesia principles, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and animal welfare regulation.
2. Transboundary disease course 2025. Completed.
3. Biosafety certificate program. The second biosafety course in the program occurred 401/501 Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity in Spring of 2025.
Review Publications
Cooper, A.M., Jameson, S.B., Pickens, V., Osborne, C., Backus, E.A., Silver, K., Mitzel, D.N. 2023. An electropenetrography waveform library for the probing and ingestion behavior of Culex tarsalis on human hands. Insect Science. 31(4):1165-1186. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.13292.
Cooper, A.M., Osborne, C., Pickens, V., Piffier, K., Jameson, S., Rodrigo Da Silva, A., Reif, K.E., Mitzel, D.N., Silver, K. 2025. A waveform library for the study of probing and ingestion behaviors from Culicoides sonorensis using AC-DC electropenetrography. Parasites & Vectors. 18. Article 265. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-025-06899-5.
Vaughan, L.D., Jameson, S.B., Wesson, D.M., Silver, K.S., Mitzel, D.N., Dobek, G.L., Londono-Renteria, B. 2023. AC-DC Electropenetrography as a tool to quantify probing and ingestion behaviors of the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) on mice in biocontainment. Comparative Medicine. 73(6):474-485. https://doi.org/10.30802/AALAS-CM-23-000037.