Black & Veatch to continue support for DTRA’s CBEP programme

The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has awarded a follow-on contract to Black & Veatch to continue enhance the partner nation’s sustainable capacity to detect, diagnose, report, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks in Ukraine.

Under the $85m five year modification contract, Black & Veatch will provide support for the implementation of the agency’s Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) with the Ukrainian Government.

The CBEP programme is aimed to provide modern lab facilities; equipment and training to strengthen the human health system.

Black & Veatch Federal Services president Bill Van Dyke said, "We will continue to provide our client with best practices in preventing the spread of biological weapons, technology and pathogens."

The DTRA has initially awarded biological threat reduction integrating contracts to Black & Veatch in 2008, while the recent contract is the next five-year phase of the CBEP in Ukraine.

The company had successfully completed Ukraine’s first Bio-Safety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory in 2010, as part of a contract with the DTRA.

The first BSL-3 laboratory, commissioned for the agency, enhances the existing bio-surveillance system’s capability to detect and respond to bio-terrorism and potential pandemics.

Commissioned in the Former Soviet Union under the Nunn-Lugar global cooperative threat reduction programme, the Ukraine BSL-3 laboratory is co-located with the Mechnikov Anti-Plague Institute in Odessa.

Since 1993, Black & Veatch and DTRA have also been working jointly to provide protection against the weapons of mass destruction explosion which include biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, in Former Soviet Union states.