WASHINGTON — The government acknowledged that an outbreak of one of the most contagious animal diseases from any of five locations being considered for a new high-security laboratory -- an event it considered highly unlikely -- would be more devastating to the U.S. economy than an outbreak from the isolated island lab where such research is now conducted.

Within the past few days, a record 143 million pounds of beef that had been processed by the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company in Chino, California, was recalled. The recall was prompted by Humane Society video documentation that cattle too sick to stand -- so-called "downer cows" -- were being stood up by workers so that they could be slaughtered and their beef used. U.S. Department of Agriculture policy bans downer cows from the food chain.

ScienceDaily — Cornell University in the United States, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Development Program, has subcontracted CSIRO to undertake the research as part of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project to tackle Ug99 – a strain of the fungus, wheat stem rust.