010361 U.S. Conducts Livestock Contamination SimulationMarch 18, 2001Washington - Three months before Britain's outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, top health officials in the United States, Mexico and Canada conducted a dress rehearsal to test their ability to respond to a similar epidemic. Within four days of a simulated detection of the virus in a small south Texas swine herd, the virus would have spread through 15 Texas counties and Mexico, a scenario that turned out to be eerily similar to the way a real epidemic now is playing out in Europe. Experts who took part in the exercise last November say it showed how difficult it is to detect the disease quickly, track down exposed animals and assemble veterinarians and others to contain an epidemic. Even logistics - finding enough rental cars, sending e-mail - can be a problem, officials said. “It's like waging war. You're fighting a virus that is very formidable,” said one participant, Beth Lautner, a veterinarian with the National Pork Producers Council. There also is concern about how fast the government could compensate farmers for animals that have to be destroyed. That is important, health officials say, because history has shown that farmers will be more likely to notify their government of an outbreak if they known they will not face economic ruin. “Continual exercises are the best way to prepare for one of these situations,” said Joe Annelli, chief of emergency veterinary programs in USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Two earlier rehearsals were held in the 1990s. Annelli said the department has identified 200 private veterinarians who would be hired immediately as federal employees if an outbreak occurs, a call-up comparable to National Guard members responding to a natural disaster. The inspection service already has 400 veterinarians on staff. The department also is working with farm groups on proposals for making payments to farmers to protect them against lost income, Annelli said. Foot-and-mouth disease is harmless to humans. It can devastate a nation's livestock industry because of lost trade and the number of animals that have to be killed to keep it from spreading. The Agriculture Department says an unchecked outbreak would result in billions of dollars in losses in the first year. Some 200,000 animals have been killed so far in Britain since its outbreak began last month. Last week, the disease was confirmed in France. The disease was eradicated from the United States in 1929 and from the rest of North America by the 1950s. It still is found on every other continent, except Australia and Antarctica, and U.N. officials warn that further spread is inevitable because of growing international trade and tourism. The virus spreads so quickly, through the air, on motor vehicles, or people's clothing, that entire herds and flocks must be incinerated to contain an outbreak. Last fall's mock epidemic in North America involved dozens of state and federal officials, scientists, veterinarians and farmers. There were simulated outbreaks in Canada as well as the fictional one that started along the Mexican border in Edinburgh, Texas. In the Texas simulation, a farmer unknowingly fed his pigs infected meat scraps that were recovered from a cruise ship's garbage. Texas health officials rushed to the real-life auction yard where the infected pig supposedly was sold and started combing through records to identify hogs and cattle that would have been exposed. Officials traced potentially infected animals to 30 different farms and ranches in Texas as well as locations in Mexico, said Terry Conger, state epidemiologist for the Texas Animal Health Commission. An estimated 10,000 animals would have been infected in the first four days, he said. In the county where the fictional outbreak originated, the damages to farmers were estimated at $50 million. “The number one lesson is that we need to be able to diagnose a disease incursion as soon as possible to prevent the movement of exposed animals,” Conger said.
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