The US needs a new high-security lab for animal diseases ? but it will cost a huge amount, and it still isn't clear if building it at the planned site in Manhattan, Kansas, is a good idea.
That's the conclusion of a US National Research Council (NRC) committee who looked into the plans for a National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility where contagious animal infections can be studied in large livestock as well as lab animals.
Only Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Canada have such labs, and the committee said a US lab was "imperative".
The 50-year-old animal diseases lab at Plum Island, New York ? the only US facility allowed to handle foot-and-mouth ? is too old, they say, to simply refurbish.
The committee said that it might be possible to scale back the $1.4 billion plans by doing some work at existing labs but wasn't sure that this would ultimately save money. It also called for a "comprehensive" risk assessment.
A NRC committee that assessed the plans in June found the latest risk assessment "inadequate", especially of the planned location in the heart of cattle country.
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