National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) - Profiles

The National Bio and Agro-Defense (NBAF) will be a state-of-the-art biocontainment facility for the study of foreign animal, emerging and zoonotic diseases that threaten the U.S. animal agriculture and public health. The facility is still under construction on Kansas State University’s Manhattan campus and is adjacent to the KSU’s Biosecurity Research Institute. Facility commissioning is scheduled to be completed in May 2021, and fully operational by December 2022.

NBAF will replace the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) as the primary U.S. center for animal biosecurity research, development of vaccines and other countermeasures, and training of veterinarians in preparedness and response to these diseases. Current operations at PIADC will continue until the mission is transitioned to the NBAF in 2023.

NBAF will contain the nation’s first large Animal Bio-Safety Level 4 (ABSL-4) containment laboratory for the study of high-consequence diseases affecting large livestock.

The NBAF will also feature a vaccine development module to augment its laboratory research and accelerate the transfer of new science and technology into the marketplace. Once lab operations begin, the research facility will have about 400 employees.