What's Really Happening on Plum Island?

The research facility on New York's Plum Island holds some of the most dangerous livestock diseases known to humankind. Learn about its history (and uncertain future) in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Lauren vogelbam here. For years, plenty of wild rumors and
fringe theories have swirled around an island the size of
New York Central Park that rests a mile and a
half about two and a half kilometers off of Long Island.
Plumb Island is home to a high security federal research

(00:22):
facility that Internet fueled urban legends have made into the
East Coast's equivalent of Area fifty one. Some have speculated
that animal human hybrids and biological warfare weapons are being
developed inside the Plumb Island Animal Disease Center, opened by
the U. S Department of Agriculture in the nineteen fifties
and under the control of the U. S. Department of
Homeland Security since two thousand three. John Verrico, a spokesman

(00:45):
for Homeland Securities Science and Technology Directorate, said, I've had
questions about Nazi scientists, alien technology, and genetically modified monsters.
But inside these security fences and bio containment area checkpoints
described in the unredacted parts of a two thousand seven
government report, government researchers work to stave off more tangible
threats foreign animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease

(01:07):
and African swine fever, which have the potential to wreak
havoc with the u S food supply if they ever
spread across the nation's farms. In the US, which hasn't
had an outbreak of foot and mouth disease since nineteen
twenty nine, an outbreak of the highly contagious affliction could
cause billions and billions of dollars in economic losses. Verka
says because infected farm animals would have to be culled

(01:29):
from the herds and destroyed, meat exports would come to
a halt until the disease was eradicated, and consumers might
face shortages of meat and dairy products. Farmers who produce
animal feed would be harmed as well. A two one
outbreak in the UK cost the nation the equivalent of
more than ten billion dollars. That long standing danger led
Congress to authorize the Department of Agriculture to create a

(01:51):
laboratory to fight animal diseases back in the nineteen fifties,
with one major condition. The facility had to be located
on an island to reduce the danger of pathogens or
infected animals. Escaping and spreading to farms. Plumb Island, the
site of the U. S Armies Fort Terry from eighteen
seventy nine to night, fit that criteria. A nineteen seventy

(02:12):
one New York Times article described the facility as a
devil's island for the deadliest animal disease germs known to man,
and described the elaborate security measures. Those included round the
clock patrols along the island's perimeter intended to warn away
voters who might be attracted by the pristine beaches, buildings
with airlocks to keep bacteria and viruses from escaping, and
holding tanks to sterilize the waste water from mandatory showers

(02:35):
taken by staffers before leaving at the end of the
work day. In part because of the risk of a
terrorist attack on the facility, in two thousand three, it
was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security, although agriculture
researchers continue to work there with additional measures such as
door sensors and alarms. And it's not for nothing. An
Al Qaeda operative who was arrested in two thousand eight

(02:56):
in Afghanistan had a handwritten list of various potential targets
in the US that in aluded Plumb Island. Despite all
the security measures, the Plumb Island Facility doesn't work in secrecy,
Verico said, we actually don't do any classified work at all.
Our scientists published reports on everything we do. Plumb Island
houses the only Foot and Mouth disease vaccine bank in

(03:17):
North America, which maintains and regularly updates a variety of
vaccines that have been developed to combat the more than
sixty different strains of the disease. Those vaccines could be
deployed in the event that the disease began to spread
in the US, Canada, or Mexico. Additionally, if an animal
becomes sick and develops suspicious lesions or other possible signs
of the disease, tissue samples can be sent to Plumb

(03:39):
Island for analysis, and veterinarians come to Plumb Island for training.
Work at the facility was instrumental in the conquest of
render pest, a deadly cattle disease that is one of
the only two diseases smallpox being the other that have
been totally eradicated. Although the Plumb Island Facility and its
four hundred person workforce have been an important part of
the nation's defense is against animal diseases for decades. It's

(04:02):
scheduled to shut down by approximately It gradually will be
replaced by the National Bio and Agro Defense Facility, at
one point to five billion dollar project under construction in Manhattan, Kansas.
That facility will be larger than Plum Island and be
able to conduct more studies simultaneously. It will also have
added layers of security to enable it to function as

(04:23):
a level for laboratory, meaning that it will be able
to study animal diseases that have the potential to be
transmitted to humans. It will be the first large animal
facility capable of such research advances, and security measures will
make it unnecessary for it to be located off shore.
What will happen to Plum Island after the Animal Disease
Center shuts down isn't yet clear. The U. S. General

(04:45):
Services Administration already has advertised the island in its buildings
for sale, in keeping with provision tucked into the two
thousand nine economic stimulus package that requires it to be
auctioned off to defray the construction cost of the Kansas
facility and or Homeland securities new headquarters complex, but local
environmentalists don't want to see Plum Island turned into a

(05:05):
waterfront housing development or golf resort. Because the island has
been off limits to development for so many years, much
of it has reverted to its natural state and has
become a refuge for birds and animals. A group of
environmental organizations in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, called
the Preserve Plum Island Coalition, advocates setting aside eight percent
of the island as a preserve in the winters. For example,

(05:27):
Plum Island is a haven for six hundred harbor and
gray seals who migrate from Canada to forge for food there.
It also provides habitat for aviate species such as the
piping plover and rosy it turn. After all, the security
measures are meant to keep humans off the island, and
keeping humans away is usually good news for animal populations.

(05:47):
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in twixteen seeking to prevent
the government from going ahead with the sale on the
grounds that it hadn't complied with requirements of various federal
environmental laws. After the General Services Administration unsuccessfully sought to
get the suit dismissed. The agency announced in August that
it would hold off on the sale in order to
prepare for a new environmental impact statement to augment a

(06:08):
previous review that environmentalists had deemed inadequate. Today's episode was
written by Patrick J. Tiger and produced by Tyler Clang
for iHeartMedia and How Stuff Works. For bondness and lots
of other plum topics, visit our home planet, how stuff
works dot com.