Despite the hopes of several top university and state leaders, Wisconsin will not house the new national bio- and agro-defense lab for testing foreign animal diseases.

Instead, the federal government will continue searching for a new site in which to replace the current lab in Plum Island, N.Y., which was built shortly after World War II.

The plan, which would have set the new facility in the Town of Dunn, just outside Madison, was endorsed by University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, and several Wisconsin legislators.

"It's a great scientific facility," said Irwin Goldman, Vice Dean of the UW College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "We were very interested in it for a whole bunch of reasons — one was that we want to help Wisconsin agriculture, and I know our farmers saw this as a plus."

Goldman also said the close proximity of the lab would have allowed the university quick and easy access to the research that it does.

"We send our students currently to Plum Island, so it [would] help in training," Goodman said.

However, residents within the Town of Dunn were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea.

"We had a meeting with the university, and we pretty much had a full town hall, and I don’t think there was a single person there in favor of it," said Stanley Solheim, supervisor of the Dunn Town Board. "We're pretty much a rural town, and we'd like to keep it that way."

Solheim said his main concern, however, was with safety.

"It houses most of the horrible diseases known to man — mostly animal diseases — but it's on an island for a reason," Solheim said. "There's always the thought that if any of that stuff could escape, that it would raise havoc."

Solheim cited the outbreak of Lyme disease, which started as an animal disease but then spread to infect the human population.

According to Dane County Supervisor Brett Hulsey, the Dane County Board also voted to oppose the placement of the lab in the Town of Dunn, which he said factored into the decision to leave Wisconsin off the short list.

Despite many concerns with the facility's safety, Goldman said the lab would not only have bio-security level three, but also level four — the highest level of security.
"It's not something that's impossible to manage," Goldman said. "But we recognize that people would have that concern. I think anybody who is having this located near them would want some assurances."

Goldman said the university respects the residents' issues with the facility.

While Wisconsin did not make it to the final list for possible sites, it was competitive in the process, Goldman said.

"What we found out was that we were ranked really high in science and in availability of workers," Goodman said.

The state of Wisconsin received a score of 91 on research, yet only a 75 on community acceptance, which brought the overall score down to 85.

"Hopefully we'll be competitive if we ever get an opportunity like this in the future," Goldman said.

The states that did make it to the list of finalists include Mississippi, Texas, North Carolina, Kansas and Georgia.