Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
industry and coordinate response efforts with government officials. The Food and
Agriculture ISAC was created in February 2002 and is administered by the Food
Marketing Institute. In 2003, three sub-ISACs were created to cover more specific
threats and information sharing for (source: Food Marketing Institute, “Food and
Agriculture ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center), at http://www.fmi
.org/isac/.)
◾
Agriculture
◾
Food manufacturing and processing
◾
Retail
In addition to the ISAC, DHS recently created the Food and Agriculture Sector
Coordinating Council, which will oversee food security and incident management.
The Council includes seven subcouncils: plant producers, animal producers, manu-
facturers/processors, restaurants/food service, retail, warehousing, and agricultural
production inputs (source: Food Chemical News, “Food Industry Creates New
Homeland Security liaison groups,” July 12, 2004).
The exact methods for control and eradication operations are difficult to pre-
dict. Past experience and simulations have shown that day-to-day decisions would
be made using “decision trees” that include factors such as the geographical spread,
rates of infestation, available personnel, public sentiment, and industry coopera-
tion. Response procedures are outlined in the APHIS PPQ
Emergency Programs
Manual
and the APHIS Veterinary Services
Federal Emergency Response Plan for an
Outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease or Other Highly Contagious Diseases
.
In an outbreak, damage is proportional to the time it takes to first detect the
disease. If a foreign disease is introduced, responsibility for recognizing initial
symptoms rests with farmers, producers, veterinarians, plant pathologists, and
entomologists. Cooperative Extension Service agents at state universities are receiv-
ing additional training on recognizing the likely symptoms of an agroterrorism
attack.
Effective detection depends on a heightened sense of awareness, and on the abil-
ity to rapidly determine the level of threat (e.g., developing and deploying rapid dis-
ease diagnostic tools). Lessons from disease outbreaks, including the recent FMD
outbreaks in Europe and avian flu in Asia and the United States, show that the
speed of detection, diagnosis, and control, spell the difference between an isolated
incident and an economic and public health disaster.
However, in recent years, the number of veterinarians with experience to recog-
nize many foreign animal diseases has declined. This is because the United States
has been successful in eradicating many animal diseases. Also, the number of vet-
erinarians available across the country with large animal experience and within
APHIS has declined. In light of this trend, APHIS has initiated efforts to increase
training for foreign animal diseases and create registries of veterinarians with
appropriate experience.
