7 U.S.C. § 3354 — Agricultural bioterrorism research and development

enhance the capability of the Secretary to respond in a timely manner to emerging or existing bioterrorist threats to the food and agricultural system of the United States;

develop new and continue partnerships with institutions of higher education^* and other institutions to help form stable, long-term programs to enhance the biosecurity and food safety of the United States, including the coordination of the development, implementation, and enhancement of diverse capabilities for addressing threats to the nation’s agricultural economy and food supply, with special emphasis on planning, training, outreach, and research activities related to vulnerability analyses, incident response, detection, and prevention technologies;

strengthen coordination with the intelligence community to better identify research needs and evaluate materials or information acquired by the intelligence community relating to potential threats to United States agriculture;

expand the involvement of the Secretary with international organizations dealing with plant and animal disease control;

continue research to develop rapid detection field test kits to detect biological threats to plants and animals and to provide such test kits to State^* and local agencies preparing for or responding to bioterrorism;

develop an agricultural bioterrorism early warning surveillance system through enhancing the capacity of and coordination between State veterinary diagnostic laboratories, Federal and State agricultural research^* facilities, and public health agencies; and

otherwise improve the capacity of the Secretary to protect against the threat of bioterrorism.