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by Fred L. Dailey

Imagine you're a dairy farmer. A tornado touches down, ruining the milking parlor. Your family is away, leaving you no extra hands for immediate help. You have a few hours to decide how to tend to your cows. You don't know which neighbors will be able to help. Overwhelmed, shorthanded, racing the clock – what do you do?

A parallel can be drawn between this scenario and what the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) faced in an all-day training exercise at Malabar Farm State Park in mid-October. The objective was to test – and ultimately improve – our response to a major livestock health emergency.

Planners painted this scene: an ODA veterinarian detects symptoms of possible foot-and-mouth disease in a cattle herd. We send samples to a federal lab for tests. We know we would need help from other government agencies and the industry to contain an outbreak. The lab test comes back positive. Worse, there is evidence of terrorism. Overwhelmed by a problem our department can't solve alone, facing possible dire consequences – what do we do?

This is the kind of crisis our department has been planning for during the past several years and since the U.K. outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2001 practicing for in classroom and field trainings.

The training has been based on Ohio's animal disease incident response plan, an outgrowth of preparedness planning by agencies like USDA and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. It is a roadmap for coordinated local-state-federal action against an incursion by any one of a number of dangerous, infectious animal diseases.

As a regulatory agency, ODA is charged with protecting Ohio herds and flocks from these diseases. The director of ODA has authority to quarantine farms and issue destruction orders. The department maintains one of only 33 animal disease diagnostic laboratories nationwide that is accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians – the only such lab in Ohio. Its state-of-the-art necropsy lab currently is being expanded and upgraded. Near-term renovations will include the addition of an alkaline hydrolysis unit, a tissue digester that can dispose of 7,000 pounds of carcass weight in eight hours – destroying all bacteria, viruses and even prions.

The FMD virus was chosen as our virtual enemy in the Malabar Farm war game because of the economic havoc it can wreak if not controlled. We field-tested tools and procedures for containing and eradicating this disease agent by "euthanizing" bales of straw used as stand-ins for infected cattle. We used heavy equipment to simulate transporting diseased "carcasses" to burial pits. We deployed police on key roads outside the "quarantined" farm to simulate traffic stops to share information with motorists. We staged mock press conferences designed to maximize public understanding of facts and avoid panic.

We also tested our ability to work under the federally prescribed Incident Command System, an organization model that is especially helpful when strangers are thrown together to solve a crisis. Twenty-some agencies worked side by side at Malabar from the Richland County EMA to the Ohio Department of Transportation to the FBI to assess the simulated threat, coordinate a response and advise the public.

USDA, Extension and industry groups also helped with the drill, but most agencies that participated do not typically deal with agriculture issues. That wasn't a barrier. All cooperated intelligently and enthusiastically in solving the huge problem thrown at them.

ODA and the organizations supporting us are poised for action should our multi-billion dollar livestock and poultry industry be threatened by FMD, Rift Valley Fever, BSE, high-path avian influenza or any other exotic animal disease.

We will remain vigilant in this mission … and eager to improve.