The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) is a biosafety level 4 research laboratory in Manhattan, Kansas, operated by the United States Department of Agriculture.

[2][3] The facility is a constituent member of the Biosafety Level 4 Zoonotic Laboratory Network, and is currently led by Alfonso Clavijo.

The NBAF was initially proposed because the prior facility on Plum Island was considered inadequate by the Department of Homeland Security, citing its size, and lack of Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) capabilities.

[9] In addition, groups formed in Manhattan; Athens, Georgia; and Butner, North Carolina to oppose the laboratory's proposed location in those cities.

[10][11] By memo dated December 4, 2008, the Department of Homeland Security named the Kansas site as the preferred location for the NBAF.

In 2008, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to evaluate the evidence DHS used to support its determinations that FMD work can be done safely on the U.S. mainland, whether an island location provides any additional protection over and above that provided by modern high containment laboratories on the mainland, and the economic consequences of an FMD outbreak on the U.S.

[citation needed] Because of concerns raised by the GAO in 2010, Congress instructed DHS to complete a "site-specific biosafety and biosecurity risk assessment.

[15] The federal government budgeted $440 million for construction and related work on the NBAF under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014, signed into law on January 17, 2014.