Fernando Torres-Vélez waits for samples in the darkness by a helicopter landing pad on Plum Island. Situated 1.5 miles from the eastern tip of Long Island, the island’s 840 acres of wildlife surround a handful of high-security laboratories run by the Department of Homeland Security to combat livestock diseases and bioterror threats.
Torres-Vélez, a veterinary pathologist, takes a ferry here five days a week as head of the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab. But tonight is different. A veterinarian at the New York State Fair has reported a cow with symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)—a virus that leaves livestock covered with lesions, too emaciated to produce milk or meat, and so contagious that an outbreak would halt all dairy and beef production in the U.S. When the helicopter lands, Torres-Vélez receives the cow’s saliva sample and rushes to his lab. Within four hours his team has ruled out FMD.
