Ames, Iowa ? Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman broke ground Tuesday on the government’s new animal disease complex and said President Bush would ask for the final $178 million to complete it in his 2005 budget.

Veneman said the upgrade of the lab in Ames, where tests on brain tissue from a Washington state Holstein found it was infected with mad cow disease, was critical.

“Our animal health inspection will have greater capacity to respond to animal disease outbreaks and possible acts of bioterrorism,” Veneman said.

As the search for potentially infected animals and feed entered its fourth week, USDA spokeswoman Julie Quick said Tuesday that USDA would soon order the killing of three cows on a Mattawa, Wash., farm that came from the same Alberta, Canada, herd as the infected Holstein.

Officials have so far condemned 581 animals following the Dec. 23 announcement of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. Authorities last week killed 449 bull calves, which included an offspring of the infected cow.

Agriculture officials also have placed a farm in Quincy, Wash., under quarantine because investigators believe that seven cows from the Alberta herd were sent there. Officials are trying to determine whether the animals are still there.