A UA laboratory has received a grant from the federal government to help combat agro-terrorism, the malicious use of plant or animal pathogens to cause widespread disease in the agricultural sector.

The grant is part of a nationwide effort to establish labs in every state that can keep tabs on possible outbreaks of foreign diseases in America's agriculture, said Peder Cuneo, a specialist in veterinary science and microbiology at the Arizona Veterinary Diagnostic Lab.

The diagnostic lab will use a $700,000 federal grant to buy more lab equipment and implement a pilot project to test for biological pathogens. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has yet to develop and expensive system for detecting pathogens, said Robert Glock, director of the diagnostic lab at 2831 N. Freeway Rd.

If a biological agent were introduced into the cattle population, for instance, the majority of cattle in the country could be dead within several weeks, Glock said.

The event could have a catastrophic impact on America's food supply as well as the economy, he said.

"It would disrupt a small segment of our economy that would lead to a cascade of other events that would disrupt our entire economy," Glock said.

"We have to be prepared to deal with it," Cuneo said.

The lab will likely focus on surveying cases of foot-and-mouth disease to ensure an outbreak doesn't happen in Arizona's extensive cattle population, Glock said.

If an outbreak occurred, it could have the same devastating effects the disease had in the United Kingdom two years ago, he said.

The UA has "been identified as an area of high importance" because of its proximity to the Mexican border, Cuneo said.

The university is well-equipped to monitor potentially harmful biological agents that may be introduced from animals being imported from Mexico, international travelers, food imports or bio-terrorism, Cuneo said.

"If you enhance your surveillance, you're going to find things a lot faster," Cuneo said. "We will have enhanced communication and information-sharing programs that will allow us to share information with other labs,"

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has not yet decided what tests the lab will run, but College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Eugene Sander said the federal government will most likely develop a system of tests that is uniform across the country that will identify biological agents.

"We just need a test that can work just as well at Kennedy Airport as it can at the Nogales port of entry," Sander said. "We're probably doing 90 percent of (the testing) already."

And the grant will provide additional UA funding to be used beyond this project.

"It should give us a leg up on our facilities," Sander said. "My feeling is this is just the beginning of a lot more money coming our way."

The USDA has also granted money to universities in California and Texas, so the government can "get enhanced diagnostic capabilities, especially in border areas," Cuneo said.