The USDA National Centers for Animal Health (NCAH) facility, located on Dayton Avenue and visible from Interstate 35, is at the center of livestock research, foreign disease diagnostics and vaccine/biologic regulation for the nation. The 523-acre campus includes 93 buildings and three separate yet intertwined governmental centers: USDA’s National Animal Disease Center (NADC), National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL), and Centers for Veterinary Biologics (CVB).
It is a restricted campus, monitored around the clock, and the NADC’s mission is to conduct basic and applied research on selected diseases of economic importance to the U.S. livestock and poultry industries.
The campus was originally established in 1961, with the iconic 550,000 square foot consolidated laboratory and administrative building being completed in 2009. The work at this facility impacts animal and public health, food safety and biosecurity, animal welfare, national and international economy, and the environment. They have close ties with Iowa State University and other institutions throughout the United States and the world and has had two scientists inducted into the prestigious National Academy of Sciences and one in the National Academy of Medicine. The campus employs over 700 individuals, creating a huge economic impact in the region.
Briefly summarizing the three agencies, the CVB focuses on vaccines and biologics, the NVSL prevents foreign diseases from entering the United States such as foot and mouth disease and African swine fever. The NADC, led by Director Mark Ackermann, focuses on livestock health research.
Ackermann is a 1986 graduate of the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine and then earned his PhD degree in 1990 and conducted research at the NADC during that time. He was a professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine from 1996 – 2017, when he moved to a similar role at Oregon State. A national search brought him back to Ames as Director of USDA’s National Animal Disease Center in 2021.
All three centers (CVB, NVSL and NADC) are part of the USDA, but each has its own function and purpose. Combining the three branches into the main, large building has led to greater efficiencies of operation, allowing for a closer collaboration, which has all led to a world-class disease animal/livestock health facility.
“For the NADC,” which Ackermann oversees, “we really work on the diseases that are difficult to eliminate,” focusing on domestic diseases that impact livestock. Projects have included the eradication of hog cholera, also known as classical swine fever, the development of a brucellosis vaccine that is now used in cattle and bison, and the discovery of a bovine leukemia virus, a disease common in dairy cattle. They study swine influenza and chronic wasting disease in deer and their potential for interspecies spread and NADC scientists recently discovered how COVID-19 impacted and moved amongst the deer population.
“We want to provide research with the goal toward therapeutics, vaccinations, with the overall goal of elimination of these diseases that are impacting livestock,” said Ackermann. Determining the “how” and “why” of disease is the overall premise.
The NVSL receives samples from across the United States that are studied in their BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratories. There is no BSL-4 laboratory in Ames, which is considered the highest security rating, although the Ames facility has one of the few BSL-3 livestock labs in the country, where protocols are strict and require scientists to wear masks and full bio-hazard suits for biosafety with strict biocontainment regulations. This is where they work on swine influenza, bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis along with other diseases.
Work at the National Centers for Animal Health reduces economic losses due to infectious, genetic, and metabolic diseases that impact livestock and poultry industries as well as food safety and antimicrobial resistance. In turn, it also further prevents suffering and death caused by these diseases. Its multiple missions have a huge impact in the advancement of livestock health in the United States.
