Current preparedness

All Kansas counties have written emergency action plans to deal with tornado, fire, train wrecks and other civil emergencies. But there is no set of standard operating procedures for responding to possible agricultural emergencies.

Currently, only Ford County has a written plan, while Finney and Grant counties are completing written plans. All three will test their emergency response plans during the June exercise. Many other Kansas counties are at various stages of planning.

Why is a training exercise necessary in Kansas?

According to Dr. Jerry Jaax, "The goal is to replicate how such an event would actually be managed if it were to occur. We are testing the response plans — are they adequate, can we identify shortcomings, gaps, or disconnects between the plans of participants at different levels of government?

"This exercise tests the coordination and communication among the various agencies," Jaax said. "Response plans and ultimately response capabilities will be improved as a result of the exercise."

This is the first in a series of National Agricultural Biosecurity Center-led exercises to test and strengthen state- and county-level readiness to respond to a significant agricultural disease event. Information from the exercises will constitute a federal clearinghouse of "lessons learned," a resource to other states and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in developing similar agricultural emergency response plans.

An ag emergency calls for new strategies and new teams

"First responders to an agricultural emergency would likely be people out in the counties," Jaax noted, "the ranchers, livestock managers, veterinarians and extension agents are likely to be key players when a disease is first spotted.

"Time is so critical in the initial stages of an infectious disease outbreak," Jaax said. "To lessen the impact and contain a disease effectively, local participants have to have planned ahead. Consequently, a solid emergency response plan is a must."

Dr. Marty Vanier added that emergency planners are, for the first time, preparing for an altogether new kind of emergency — the deliberate introduction of livestock disease, a crop disease of suspicious origins, or insects and pests foreign to Kansas.

Agricultural emergency response teams will be made up of people who really have little or no experience trying to work together — veterinarians, plant pathologists, extension agents and others, as well as typical first responders from transportation and emergency medical personnel.

Jaax says preparedness is not only about 'the bad guys'

Jaax said the simulation exercise is doubly useful: a strong, well-thought-out response plan bolsters overall capability to react to any disease outbreaks, intentional or naturally occurring.

"Response plans are not just something we need in case of intentional disease introduction by the bad guys," Jaax said.

Potentially serious livestock and crop diseases are always a natural threat to our agricultural infrastructure. Throw in the potential for diseases that could affect animals and humans, the zoonotics, and the picture becomes much more complex.

Recent notable examples include the emergence of West Nile virus in the United States, and new outbreaks of avian influenza in California, and the Shenandoah Valley.

"The emergence of SARS in China and its subsequent spread to other countries is a wake-up call to our public health community," Jaax said.

"If an agricultural disease is detected, the appropriate response elements such as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, state health departments and others are mobilized to respond in proportion to the magnitude of the situation," he noted.

Homeland security institute designs the Kansas simulation

The simulation exercise developer is the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, a company with a national reputation for high-level defense simulation exercises for federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Dr. Marty Vanier said an outside consultant strengthens the drill: "An outside developer throws curve balls, the surprise elements that will really test the preparedness plans.

"State and county planners will be getting extremely beneficial feedback in terms of identifying strong and weak points of the emergency plans they've written."

National Agricultural Biosecurity Center develops training CD

The National Agricultural Biosecurity Center is developing a CD-based training program with a template to help Kansas counties draw up and evaluate written emergency response plans. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will use the CD to prepare counties all over the country.

A sample problem in the CD training program might be: if the state's emergency plan says "stop all agricultural traffic in your county," how are you going to implement that order?

"That's the kind of thinking and planning that has to happen to create an effective response plan," Vanier said. "The CD will provide counties with a cost-effective tool for getting started."