A consortium led by the University of Missouri-Columbia is one of 29 applicants to the Department of Homeland Security for a new National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, a department spokesman said Friday.

Missouri’s application will be evaluated in the weeks and months to come, said Larry Orluskie, senior homeland security spokesman. The application process closed March 31, with submissions from 22 states and the District of Columbia.

The $400 million facility would replace the existing Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York. The new facility, which would cover 500,000 square feet, would be used to investigate infectious diseases and bioterrorism threats and to react to health emergencies. Orluskie said the Plum Island site also is in the running.

Missouri’s application proposes to locate the federal facility on the university’s South Farm property, east of Highway 63 and south of New Haven Road, near New Haven Elementary School.

The prospect of dealing with the likes of West Nile virus, avian flu and mad cow disease at the facility worries some Columbia-area residents who testified against the proposal last month at a public hearing.

Joe Kornegay, dean of the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, said there would be further opportunity for public input. He said community acceptance would be a key component of the application process.

"Of course that will be a critical issue ultimately for a site here or any site proposed elsewhere in the United States," Kornegay said.

Missouri’s consortium includes Washington University, St. Louis University, the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis and the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute. Animal health companies based in Fort Dodge, Kan., and Kansas City also are part of the consortium.

Kornegay said that the government’s request for applications for the project encouraged the consortium approach and that he expected all of the submissions would take that form.

"I think we have brought together a very strong group of universities and animal health companies and have derived strong support from the community and the state," Kornegay said. He said the Missouri application took advantage of the life science corridor along Interstate 70.

"But one has to be realistic," Kornegay added. "There are some very strong proposals coming in from other groups throughout the United States."

Two groups of states - Arkansas with Louisiana, and Kentucky with Tennessee - have submitted joint bids.

A bid has been submitted by a consortium of North Carolina colleges that includes the veterinary school at North Carolina State University. Texas A&M University, which hosts a facility that studies animal diseases, also is in the running.

The federal departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture and Health and Human Services will rank the applications, Orluskie said. He said the selection process would culminate in the fall with a short list that would lead to the preparation of environmental impact statements.

Construction on the facility is scheduled to begin by Oct. 1, 2008, with the timetable calling for lab operations to start in 2012.