The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center is putting the finishing touches on a first for the state and second for the country — a plant and animal agrosecurity facility.
The $22.2 million building on Ohio State University’s Wooster campus will provide 27,500 square feet of space for faculty, staff and graduate students looking into plant and animal issues that could endanger Ohio agriculture.
The only other facility nationwide to combine research in plant and animal agrosecurity is the Kansas State National Agricultural Biosecurity Center. Three other facilities in the country investigate animal biosecurity.
“We think this is a critically important facility in how we can help the agricultural sector continue to be a part of the Ohio economy,” OARDC Director Steven Slack said.
The new Plant and Animal Agrosecurity Research Facility — called PAAR, for short — will debut when the OARDC marks the first anniversary of the tornado that caused millions of dollars of damage to buildings, experiments and trees Sept. 16.
The daylong events will include speeches by university and public officials from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Shisler Conference Center and recognition of donors who have contributed to the renewal of the Secrest Arboretum from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the arboretum.
Officials will dedicate PAAR at 11 a.m. and offer tours there from noon to 6 p.m. For security purposes, no backpacks, large purses or cameras — including cell phone cameras — will be allowed in the facility.
PAAR was under construction when the storm struck and was not damaged, but OARDC officials wanted to give the public a chance to see it before beginning experiments there in January.
The facility will include two BSL-3 enhanced laboratories and four BSL-3 Ag animal isolation rooms that can handle large animals, such as cows and pigs.
BSL is the third of four containment levels set by the federal government for facilities that deal with dangerous biologic agents.
The facility will help to allow researchers to develop new diagnostic tools, treatments and vaccines, reducing economic losses from diseases and pests such as the Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle imported from Asia in solid wood packaging material that has wreaked havoc in domestic ash trees.
Some of the first experiments in the new building will deal with strains of influenza in food animals.
Slack, the OARDC director, said the new facility will replace outdated facilities on the Wayne County campus that will be converted to storage or knocked down.
OARDC, the research arm of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is the largest university biosciences research facility of its kind nationwide.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3729.