Judges' quarters on Vet campus fraught with risk

Sources say living next to the Institute of Animal health and Veterinary Biologicals (IAHVB), could pose serious risk to human health. The land around the institute needs to be free of human habitation as a safety measure.

“We don’t even have staff quarters around this existing laboratory as a safety measure, leave alone the future projects. We feel that the judges should reconsider this in their own interest,” said a sources from IAHVB.

The senior academics at the institute express helplessness over the Government decision to allocate 20 acres in the campus for the judges’ quarters and feels that the allocation of land will surely jeopardise the expansion programme of the renowned institute.
The IAHVB’s plans to set up two laboratories to produce pestes des petite vaccine (known as PPR vaccine for sheep and goat plague) and establish a Southern Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (SRADDL) have now received a jolt. All this, thanks to the State Cabinet decision to allocate the land for constructing official residences for judges of the Karnataka High Court.

In a meeting with the Karnataka Veterinary Animal and Fisheries Sciences University (KVAFSU) Vice-Chancellor, the IAHVB director had requested for an additional 15 acres land for research activities and to set up the laboratory.

“We were assured about the land. We had even made a formal proposal to the Vice Chancellor on December 9, 2010. But the Cabinet decision has dashed our plans,” said a source at IAHVB. The SRADDL, a much awaited project has been in the offing following the outbreak of bird flu in 2005. Experts like R N Srinivasa Gowda, the then KVAFSU Vice Chancellor and Director, IAHVB and others had pressed for a high security laboratory in the City.

The laboratory was to cater to the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshwadeep. “In case of emergency like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), avian influenza and other zoonotic diseases, this laboratory will be the only one to handle the samples and will help prevent further spread of the disease,” explained Dr R N Srinivasa Gowda, former VC, KVAFSU.

Bio Safety Lab
The laboratory, called as Bio Safety Laboratory -3, will examine highly infectious material which can be communicable to human beings. It will be equipped with facilities to test samples without pilfering out the germs or virus out of the laboratory.
“It will be next only to the High Security Laboratory Laboratory-4 located in Bhopal,” explained Dr Gowda.

The vaccine centre, which is also coming up at the site is a project funded jointly by the State and the Union Governments. The State has already allocated Rs two crore for the project and the Union Government will be contributing for the infrastructure.

Besides, IAHVB has also plans to establish a Centre for Emerging Disease Prevention, Centre for New Viral Vaccine Production, Research and Development Centre and the Central Experimental Animal House, all of which require minimal or no human habitation in the vicinity of the labs.