Mission:
The Ames, Iowa Location is composed of the National Centers for Animal Health (NCAH) and three research units on the Iowa State University (ISU) campus. The NCAH focuses on conducting basic and applied research on selected diseases of economic importance to the U.S. livestock and poultry industries, while the units on the ISU campus focus on the effective development and enhancement of plant and soil resources and developing technical tools to manage insect pests of corn. The Corn Insects and Crop Genetics research mission is to develop programs to manage corn insects by integrating genetics of insect behavior, insect movement, economic thresholds, and corn agroecosystem dynamics into enhanced macro- and micro-organisms for insect management, to utilize genetic understanding of field crops to improve corn resistance, soybean production traits, soybean quality, cereal pathogen resistance, and host interaction, and to advance the science of bioinformatics. The Plant Introduction research mission is to conserve plant genetic diversity and encourage the utilization of diversity in research and crop improvement programs. The National Soil Tilth Laboratory is composed of four units with an overall mission to generate and integrate knowledge for the development and evaluation of management practices that enhance surface, ground, and air quality while ensuring the long-term enhancement and conservation of the nation's soil and water resources, as well as to conduct basic and applied research to solve problems in the swine industry that impact production efficiency and environmental quality.