[media-credit name=’RAY PFEIFFER/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]If the University of Wisconsin wanted to know if its proposal to house a federal, foreign animal-disease laboratory in a small town outside of Madison would be met with resistance, local residents gave Provost Patrick Farrell and more than a half-dozen university representatives their answer Thursday night: Yes, it would.

One of 14 sites nationwide being considered as a potential location for the new National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility — which would house and study Biosafety Level 4 agents, the highest classified level of toxic substances — UW pitched its proposal to the residents of the town of Dunn Thursday during a crowded and contentious town hall meeting.

The facility would be operated jointly by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Homeland Security and would study foreign animal diseases to find potential vaccines, treatments and preventative measures.

Dunn residents expressed many concerns about the proposed project, including safety and protection against potential environmental contamination, the type of research that would be conducted at the laboratory, and how the facility would be operated and monitored.

"So, are were talking about absolutely the worst, the most infectious, terrible diseases in the world coming right here to the heartland?" one female resident asked the panel.

In the face of the many passionate, sometimes harsh questions, UW representatives claimed the proposed facility would be safe and said its research would not engage in developing offensive biological weapons.

Rather, many representatives said the facility's research would be important in detecting, preventing and treating possible biological threats.

"First of all, we're talking about the threat of our enemies unleashing micro-organisms against us in the nature of bio-terrorism," UW professor of medicine Dennis Maki said. "Second of all, and absolutely the greater threat is the threat of new, emerging infections and disease pathogens that can spread rapidly."

University representatives continued to emphasize that the project is still in its developmental phase and noted that UW is not even assured of housing the laboratory yet.

The benefits of the proposed facility, UW representatives said, would be an increase in collaborative research between university scientists and a wealth of biological and agricultural animal researchers across the nation.

"It comes back to several factors, the most important being animal agriculture," said Daryl Buss, dean of the UW School of Veterinary Medicine. "Having the facility as a resource, in the state of Wisconsin, and being able to use it as a venue to enhance the skill and knowledge of producers as well as veterinarians and everybody really would be a huge asset to animal agriculture."

Farrell said UW expects the federal government to trim the list of 14 candidates to a shorter one of "two to three" by early 2007 and might not make a final decision until a year later.

Despite the sometimes contentious atmosphere, Farrell said that overall the meeting was positive and gave the university an opportunity to hear from the town of Dunn residents and address their concerns.

"I thought it went great," Farrell said. "We came to sort of tell people what the plan was and listen to what people's concerns were … and we heard a lot. They gave us a lot of concerns, and that's great. That's what we came for."