CREEDMOOR - Four officials of the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture faced a demonstrative crowd of about 250 people Thursday night, many of whom waved signs protesting the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.

The officials had come to Creedmoor to answer local questions about the facility, intended to study and develop countermeasures for foreign diseases such as hoof-and-mouth or swine fever that could enter the U.S. and infect agricultural animals.

"We will not be doing human diseases in the lab," said Jamie Johnson, Homeland Security director of laboratories, addressing one of the concerns raised by opponents of the lab over the last several months -- that a deadly pathogen such as anthrax or Ebola could escape from the lab into the surrounding area.

Johnson also said the lab would not research biological weapons.

Those pledges didn't satisfy people waving signs that read "Lies in Progress."

Johnson said the site near Butner is one of six under consideration for the $450 million lab, which would employ more than 300, about one-third of them scientists. Homeland Security expects to make a site decision by the end of October, Johnson said.

A consortium of North Carolina universities and government agencies, private companies and trade associations has been lobbying to bring the 520,000-square-foot lab to N.C. State University's Umstead Research Farm off Range Road.

Since Butner made the short list in July, though, opposition has organized, raising concerns over the lab's safety and security and appealing to local governments to go on record against the facility. The town of Stem and Granville County have expressed official opposition, while Raleigh's city council voted Tuesday to withhold its support, pending federal response to its own concerns.

Thursday night's town meeting, held at South Granville High School, was arranged in response to mounting opposition in the area, said Dave Green, a spokesman for the N.C. State veterinary school, which filed the initial application to bring the lab to North Carolina.

Opponents, he said, "are very vocal and they're very organized. ... There has been a lot of misinformation out there."

DHS held a similar meeting this week in Athens, Ga., another possible site, Green said. Of the states under consideration, he said, only in North Carolina and Georgia has major opposition developed.

The other sites are in Kansas, Mississippi, Texas and Plum Island, N.Y., where an animal disease center has operated for more than 50 years.

Butner is attractive because of its proximity to the Research Triangle Park, N.C. State and Duke universities and because of the Triangle's biotech industry and the local labor force, Johnson said, responding to questions.

Johnson was joined by Tammy Beckham, director of a foreign animal disease lab at Plum Island; Eugene Cole, a laboratory architect; and Larry Barrett, director of the Plum Island facility.

Protesters filled the school lobby and parked a station wagon outside the entrance with a sign reading "Butner Hearse" and showing a Grim Reaper figure rising from a coffin.

Just inside, a group of children sang "We don't want your germy lab" and a youthful string ensemble played patriotic songs. The main opposition group, the Granville Non-Violent Action Team, or GNAT, was enlisting support and selling protest T-shirts and ribbons. Signs, including some with misspellings, hung along the walls:

"Outsource the NBAF to China."

"No to Bio-Disease Factory."

"NBAF Would Make Buter the Most Dangerous Town in America."

Garland Walker, a 33-year Butner resident, stood in the lobby wearing a "No Biolab" button.

"I'm very much opposed," he said. "I hope they got the message."